The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia, 1860-1910

The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia, 1860-1910
Author :
Publisher : Univ. of Tennessee Press
Total Pages : 420
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1572331682
ISBN-13 : 9781572331686
Rating : 4/5 (82 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia, 1860-1910 by : Mark V. Wetherington

Download or read book The New South Comes to Wiregrass Georgia, 1860-1910 written by Mark V. Wetherington and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2002-05 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This examination of cultural change challenges the conventional view of the Georgia Pine Belt as an unchanging economic backwater. Its postbellum economy evolves from self-sufficiency to being largely dependent upon cotton. Before the Civil War, the Piney Woods easily supported a population of mostly yeomen farmers and livestock herders. After the war, a variety of external forces, spearheaded by Reconstruction-era New South boosters, invaded the region, permanently altering the social, political, and economic landscape in an attempt to create a South with a diversified economy. The first stage in the transformation -- railroad construction and a revival of steamboating -- led to the second stage: sawmilling and turpentining. The harvest of forest products during the 1870s and 1880s created new economic opportunities but left the area dependent upon a single industry that brought deforestation and the decline of the open-range system within a generation.


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