Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/742

710 Economic revolution in the South. [1860-90 The thirty years after the war also witnessed a great economic revolution in the Southern States. The abolition of slavery destroyed once for all the large-plantation system which had been the foundation of a patriarchal society; and the financial ruin of the large planters made its partial re-establishment under a wage system impossible. During the stormy days of reconstruction the growth of a new economic system was retarded; but the subsequent years saw an adaptation of Southern agriculture to the new conditions of free labour on lines which are likely to be permanent. While the large planters and their de- scendants were left helpless before the new problem, the small planters, the "poor whites," rose rapidly in importance, took over the land relinquished to them, and began the process of regeneration. The black population was for the time being not improved by emancipation ; and its incompetence has been a serious check on the growth of the South. Strenuous efforts are being made to educate them on lines of industrial efficiency; and the better blacks are gradually learning that economic independence is their real need. It must be admitted, however, that the amount of skilled labour among the blacks at the present time is less than before their emancipation. The same difficulties have proved how chimerical were the early hopes that a body of independent farmers would grow up among the freedmen. Despite notable exceptions, they have not shown sufficient economic strength for the role of landowners. At first they were employed as wage-earners, but very soon the lack of capital on the part of the planters and of industry on the part of the black labourers led to the substitution of the system of share-tenancy, which is now the most prevalent method of tenure among the agricultural blacks. To these difficulties should be added the pressure of indebtedness due to deficient capital and falling prices, which has kept even the white planters from establishing that independent position which on the whole characterises the farmers of the North. Still the substitution of the small-farm system for the large plantations opens up to Southern agriculture the prospect of gradually attaining independent conditions. Despite all these drawbacks the cultivation of cotton has grown enormously, enabling the Southern States to advance rapidly in popula- tion and wealth. The production of cotton increased from less than 2,000,000,000 Ibs. in the early seventies to more than 4,000,000,000 in the early nineties, keeping pace with the world's demand, of which it supplies 80 per cent. Exports increased from about 1,000,000,000 Ibs. to over 3,000,000,000 Ibs. Furthermore, the Southern States have at last begun to utilise their other resources. Coal-mines and iron-works are being opened, while the growth of cotton manufacture in the old Slave States has been more rapid than in any other part of the country. The last few years have witnessed in the United States an expansion of industry and a growth of material prosperity which have not been