University of AlbertaHISTORY 204

US history

How did Reconstruction end, and how would you contrast the New south and the Old South? 

 

Answer:

The Reconstruction ended because of the Great Betrayal where the government pulled federal troops out of the state policies in the South and ended the Reconstruction era. Hayes withdrew the last federal troops and also the bayonet backed Republican governments collapsed. The Republicans had bribed the Southern Democrats to vote for Hayes and they promised to do it if the Republicans would end the military districts in the South. The Republicans were desperate and they struck the deal and ended up ending the Reconstruction era. 

The New South was totally different from the Old South. It changed after the Reconstruction era. The Old South was characterized by the rural agricultural based economy and society in the Antebellum South before the American Civil War while the New South was of the post Reconstruction era. New South refers to the economic shift from the agrarian society to one that embraced industrial development. The Old South was desolate after the Civil War and was characterized by economy fall. Most of the white southerns had been deprived of their slaves during the emancipation and left without personal property since the slaves were providing cheap labor. The New South brought expansion in industry especially in textile manufacturing in an effort to restore the declined economy of the South. The railroad developmental increased dramatically. The reformers used it to call for modernization of the society and reject the economy and traditions of the Old South and the slavery based plantation system of antebellum period. 

The New South was meant to restore the economy of the South after the Civil War and also bring modernization and reject the traditions of the Old South. The Old South was dependent on the slaves to work on their plantation and the cotton industry and with the Reconstruction era that abolished slavery, the South declined as most of the whites had no property. Most of the plantations and structures had been destroyed during the Civil War.