The Importance Of The New South In Henry Grady's Speech

“. . . . .Many of the calamitous efforts of the tremendous revolution which has passed over the southern States still remain. The immeasurable benefits which will surely follow, sooner or later, the hearty and generous acceptance of the legitimate results of that revolution have not yet been realized. . . . . The people of those States are still impoverished, and the inestimable blessing of wise, honest, and peaceful local self-government is not fully enjoyed. But it must not be forgotten that only a local government which recognizes and maintains inviolate the rights of all is a true self-government. . . . .With respect to the two distinct races whose peculiar relations to each other have brought upon us the deplorable complications and perplexities which exist in those States, it must be a government which guards the interests of both races carefully and equally. . . . .” Rutherford B. Hayes, Inaugural Address, March 5, 1877.

Imagine a historian, author of an award-winning dissertation and several books. He is an experienced lecturer and respected scholar; he is at the forefront of his field. His research methodology sets the bar for other academicians. He is so highly esteemed, in fact, that an article he has prepared is to be presented to and discussed by the United States’ oldest and largest society of professional historians. These are precisely the circumstances in which Ulrich B. Phillips wrote his 1928 essay, “The Central Theme of Southern History.” In this treatise he set forth a thesis which on its face is not revolutionary: that the cause behind which the South stood unified was not slavery, as such, but white supremacy. Over the course of

After the Civil War, the South was in a state of political turmoil, social chaos, and economic decline. Contrary to popular belief, Northerners did not subject Southerners to unethical or inhumane punishment. The time post Civil War was filled with efforts toward reconstructing the South, yet there is the strong question if there even is a New South. Yes, there was somewhat of a New South economically. No, there was not a New South regarding race relations and social hierarchy. In the 1870’s, the South realized the world still looked at them as the ones who wanted slavery. There was a need to project a new image to the world and to stimulate

Before the Civil War, the “Old South” lived by the regimes of slavery with white’s superior

“It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad,” wrote Mark Twain in his bitter, nihilistic satire on the post-Reconstruction era of the United States: The Gilded Age. “[T]he past seems a storm-swept desolation…What is the use of struggling, and toiling and worrying anymore?” Such was the mood of the late 1800s; the racism and prejudice that had festered in the pre-Civil War South had not abated, and progress in civil rights was undermined by indifference among Northerners and Southerners alike. The deep sectional divisions from the War had not yet been repaired, and the struggle between justice and unity was bloody and heated. The deadly tug-of-war between the two culminated in a win for unity; Reconstruction ended not with the blessings and consent of freedmen, but with a quiet compromise between apathetic bureaucrats.

Southern expansionism took on many forms in the United States between the years 1789 and 1860. Examining southern history for these years shows how slave-grown cotton played a major factor in southern expansion, specifically through the issues of the Louisiana Purchase, soil erosion, the desires of yeoman farmers and planters, Indian removal, the interstate slave trade, the independence movement in Texas, the Mexican War, filibusters in Central America, and especially concerning relations between the southern and northern states. However, southern history shows us that while the growth of southern cotton did in fact play a large role in the rationale for expansion, but there are other concerns involved here. Most notably, the constant dilemma of the slave to free state representation in Congress additionally played a large role in why so many southerners decided to pack up and head west. These two reasons can be explained as the two most primary concerns involving the sudden growth of southern expansion. Despite cotton being one of the major factors that led to southern expansion, it can be proven by examining southern history that the constant struggle between northerners and southerners to balance the ratio of slave to free states in Congress additionally played into expansion.

You would be hard pressed to find any Southerner who does not know and understand the sentiment behind the statement, “The South will rise again.” The South is a region within the United States that does not follow the generalized ‘American rule.’ In an effort to identify what makes the South a distinctive region, one must explore the comparisons of culture, education, racism, religion, and identity of the South and its people to the rest of America. Through the use of a wide variety of statistics and comprehensive comparisons, it is possible to understand why Southerners feel it is important to protect and preserve their heritage from what they consider to be ‘attacks’ from outsiders. While the South has experienced many

“The South confronts one grave moral challenge. It must not exploit the fact of Negro backwardness to preserve the Negro as a servile class… Let the South never permit itself to do this. So long as it is merely asserting the right to impose superior mores for whatever period it takes to affect a genuine cultural equality between the races, and so long as it does so by humane and charitable means, the South is in step with civilization, as is the Congress that permits it to function.” (5)

The novel primarily utilizes a traditional view point. The author views reconstruction in a negative light and as a time when power-hungry Radicals used their political power to punish the south, in contrast to the president’s attempts to revive, instead of change, the South.

The Political Disputes of 1820-1860 compromised and then broke down.In the 1800’s slavery was the main conflict between the states. The compromise began to break down when slavery began in the North and the South. The Anti-Slavery Convention report that an American citizen who owns a human being into involuntary and is forced to be his property is a Man Stealer, which means immoral people. (Doc.B) Senator Henry Clay said that it is impossible that South Carolina ever desired a moment to become a separate and independent state.(Doc.A). Senator Daniel Webster’s Judgment is that the South is right and the North is wrong.(Doc.C). Georgia thinks all northern, and especially the New England, states are devoid of society fitted for well-bred Southern gentlemen.(Doc.E) Abraham Lincoln ambitious Northern politicians. (Doc.F) Henry Clay, National

4. What was the Democrat’s “Solid South”? How does this seem different from the political South of today?

Yankee invaders between 1877-1850 subjugated the Southern way of life. The degeneration of liberty begun with the North’s ideology of abolishment of slavery, the election of Abraham Lincoln, the disapproval of sovereign succession, the invasion of the Confederate States of America, and the torment of military districts. Laws unjustly created to suppress the white Southerners. These condemnations lasted for over twenty years. This essay will highlight all of these atrocities, and finally will demonstrate that through all this pain and suffering Southern patriotic dignity remained intact.

The Reconstruction was an intricate time in America that helped freed slaves look for a second chance at life. But when the idea was found smoldering in flames, the question rose up through the ashes, who dealt the final blow? It was regarded as one of the most ironic events in history because, as it happens, the same year the “great plan” for America fell, it was the 100th anniversary the prestigious country was born. Reconstruction was diminished by someone, and that someone, was the south. The terrorist organization, Ku Klux Klan, otherwise known as the KKK was specifically organized to destroy the thought of reconstruction, in fact, they targeted government officials, and just about every living Southerner…. Supported it.

As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout its lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, and all of them have had their own objectives and plans for the future. As history has taken its course, though, almost all of these “revolutionary movements” have come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a violent period that defined the defeated South’s status in the Union and the meaning of freedom for ex-slaves. Though, like many things in life, it did come to an end, and the resulting outcome has been labeled both a success and a failure.

2. The post–Civil War South has been called the New South. In what ways did it succeed in reinventing itself? In what ways did it fail?