Response to New South

The ideology of New South transformed the southern states more than we realize. The Old South was seen by some as plantations and slavery, while many viewed it as a very prosperous time of social order where Southern chivalry was at its best. These different aspects of the Old South helped make the New South what it is today. We went from a war-beaten South that knew only of agriculture to an industrial power.

The transformation of racial discrimination from Old to New South was one for the history books. What came along with the New South for those who had been enslaved and oppressed were new opportunities to grow individually and collectively. The development of technical schools throughout the South greatly contributed to this movement. People of all races, especially blacks and poor whites who had been put down for so long, could now get a practical education. This hands-on kind of education brought industries and companies to the New South for cheap and hardworking labor. Now southerners wouldn't have to rely only on their farms as sources of income.

The ideas of a New South proved to others that the Old South was trying to make a ''new'' name for itself. Calling itself the New South showed the willingness and need to reinvent what it represented. I believe that the ideology of the New South truly reclaimed the fate of what the South was becoming after the War. Although, who doesn't wish we still had a little Southern chivalry left around here?