Exam 18: The Industrial Age: North, South, and West

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Southern industry grew up around railroads, iron manufacture, textile production, and tobacco.Railroads: Railroads led the South's industrial expansion, attracting capital from wealthy northern investors. The railroads also provided much-needed connections between the cities and towns of the South. Before the Civil War and up until about 1880, southern railroad development was very slow.But between 1880 and 1890-just one ten-year period-southern rails saw an increase of more than 100 percent. Southern state governments poured resources into supporting rail companies, and northern rail companies began to expand into southern states, seeing an opportunity for profit and growth in the developing southern economy. By 1890, southern railroads had become a model for railroad development worldwide.Iron Production: The expansion of the railroads also helped foster the urbanization of southern cities and the growth of the iron industry. Many New South advocates hoped that iron production would become the central means for the South to compete with the North in industry. Because the demand for iron was high, especially in construction trades and in laying railroad lines, the iron industry seemed an ideal place to invest money and resources. As a result, it grew; the southern iron industry expanded seventeenfold in the 1800s.Cotton and Textiles: The easy transportation provided by railroads also allowed for the expansion of the southern textile industry. The industry grew fast in the South because of the abundance of cheap labor and the wide availability of cotton. In 1870, about 10,000 people were employed in textile manufacturing. By 1900, nearly 100,000 people worked in the industry. The work was harsh, reflecting the typical labor conditions of the Industrial Age, and it was not uncommon for a mill worker to work a fourteen-hour day.Tobacco: Tobacco was another growth industry in the New South. The new machine, invented in 1881 by James Bonsack, could roll 200 cigarettes per minute, the same as what a skilled worker could produce in an hour. Using the competitive advantage of the automated cigarette-rolling machine, and aggressively advertising his cigarettes across the nation, James Buchanan Duke bought up more than two hundred of his competitors, ultimately forming the American Tobacco Company, one of the largest companies in the country and one of the original twelve companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It alone was known as "the Tobacco Trust."