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The history of the Southern United States reaches back thousands of years and included the Mississippian peoples, well known for their mound building. European history in the region began in the very earliest days of the exploration and colonization of North America . Spain , France , and England eventually explored and claimed parts of the U.S. South , and the cultural influences of each can still be seen in the region today. In the centuries since, the history of the Southern United States has recorded a large number of important events, including the American Revolution , the American Civil War , the ending of Slavery , and the American Civil Rights Movement . NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS In Pre-Columbian times (before Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492), the only inhabitants of what is now the Southern United States were Native Americans . The most important Native American nation in the region was the Mississippian People , who were a Mound Builder culture that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States in the centuries leading up to European contact. The Mississippian way of life began to develop around 900 A.D. in the Mississippi River Valley (for which it is named). Around 1500, European contact with the Mississippian culture began, with the most important contact being the arrival of Hernando De Soto . Due to aggression on both sides and cultural misunderstandings, the encounter left nearly all of the Spaniards and thousands of Native Americans dead. After the destruction and flight of the de Soto expedition, the Mississippian peoples continued their way of life with little direct European influence. However, European-introduced diseases soon tore through the culture, causing it to disintegrate into smaller nations and tribes. Among the notable Native American nations that developed in the South after the Mississippians include what are known as "the five civilized tribes": the Cherokee , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek and Seminole . These people were for the most part hunters and farmers. They often built villages surrounded with fortification, as there were frequent wars between tribes, though some were Nomadic . In some villages, a central meeting house was the focal point and was used for ceremonial purposes, or for religious worship. Some built mounds to honor their dead. Women made pottery from clay and decorated it with depictions of people and animals. Some tribes had a caste system in which chiefs and their families were honored and a kind of nobility existed. EUROPEAN COLONIZATION Spanish exploration After Christopher Columbus discovered the West Indies , Spain made frequent exploratory trips to the New World. Rumors of natives being decorated with gold and stories of a Fountain Of Youth helped hold the interest of many Spanish explorers, and colonization followed eventually. Among the first European settlements in North America were Spanish settlements in what would later become the state of Florida . Spain also colonized parts of Alabama , Mississippi , Louisiana , and Texas . French colonization The French primarily established colonies in Canada . They found the New World to be a fruitful land for fur trapping and trading. The French Fur Trade rs expanded their hunting lands by traveling down the Mississippi River , where they found animals such as Beaver , Mink , and Fox . France quickly claimed these fertile regions for themselves and several French settlements were established. Two very notable French colonies were New Orleans and Bienville, which would be later renamed Mobile . The French called their territory Louisiana , in honor of their King Louis. AMERICAN COLONIAL ERA (1607-1775) After the defeat of the Spanish Armada , the exploration of the new world opened to other European Countries, most notably England. Walter Raleigh established a settlement on Roanoke Island , North Carolina in 1585, though the colony failed to prosper. The colonists were retrieved the following year by English supply ships. In 1587, Raleigh again set out with a group of colonists to Roanoke. From this colony, the first recorded European birth in North America, a child named Virginia Dare , was reported. That group of colonists disappeared and is known as the "Lost Colony". Many people theorize that they were either killed or taken in by local tribes. Like New England, the South was originally settled by English Protestants, later becoming a melting pot of religions as with other parts of the country. While the earlier attempt at colonization had failed on Roanoke Island, the English established their first permanent colony in Jamestown, Virginia , in 1607, at the mouth of the James River , which in turn empties into the Chesapeake Bay . Settlement of the Chesapeake Bay was driven by desire to obtain precious metal resources, specifically Gold . The colony was also technically still within Spanish territorial claims (and hopefully the gold reportedly within that territory), yet far enough from most Spanish settlements as to avoid colonial clashes. As the "Anchor of the South", the region includes the Delmarva Peninsula and much of coastal Virginia , Maryland , and Delaware . Early in the history of the colony, it became clear that the claims of gold deposits were vastly exaggerated. Referred to as the "Starving Time" of the Jamestown colony, the years from the time of landing in 1607 until 1609 were rife with starvation and instability. However, Native American support, in addition to reinforcements from Britain , sustained the colony. Due to continued political and economic instability, however, the Colony Of Virginia Charter was revoked in 1624. Primary in this revocation was the revelation that thousands of settlers were "gone" and presumed starved after investigations following a 1622 attack by Native American tribes led by Opchanacanough . A royal charter was established for Virginia, yet the House Of Burgesses , formed in 1619, was allowed to continue as political leadership for the colony in conjunction with a royal Governor . Important for the Virginia Colony and Southern political and cultural development was Governor William Berkeley and his rule over Virginia from 1645 until 1675. His desire for an elite immigration to Virginia led to the "Second Sons" policy, which recruited the younger sons of the English planter elite to emigrate to Virginia. Also, Berkeley emphasized the " Headright System ", giving large tracts of land to those arriving in the colony. Much of this early immigration would lead to the aristocratic nature of the political and social structure of the South. Despite the early failures, English colonists continued to arrive along the southern Atlantic coast. Virginia became a prosperous English colony. The area now known as Georgia , was also settled, though its beginnings were as a penal colony similar to what was established by the English in Australia . Prisoners bound for Australia were originally meant for Louisiana, to effect legimate conquest of New France with civilian occupation and thus extend British North America . This strategy was abandoned at the Treaty of Paris and because the Patriots were firm in their conviction that no White man should endure slavery, even as Black slaves were being manumitted by the abolitionist movement in the British Isles. Rise of tobacco culture and slavery in the colonial South ''See main article Slavery In Colonial America '' From the 1613 introduction of Tobacco , its Cultivation began to form the basis of the early Southern economy. Only later technological developments, especially the Whitney Cotton Gin of 1794, allowed greater Cotton cultivation. Until that point, most cotton was farmed in large plantations in the Province Of Carolina , and small-scale farming of tobacco was the dominant Cash Crop export of the South and the Middle Atlantic States . The earliest form of slavery in the colonies emerged from the first introduction of slaves in 1619 aboard a Dutch Slave Ship until, approximately the 1660s, when slaves became a better economic labor force than Indentured Servants . During this period, often Life Expectancy was low and indentured servants came from overpopulated European areas. With the lower price of servants compared to slaves, and the high Mortality of the servants, planters often found it much more economical to use servants. Because of this, slavery in the early colonial period differed greatly in the American colonies from that in the Caribbean . Often Caribbean slaves were worked literally to death on large Sugar and Rice plantations, while American slaves maintained higher life expectancy and attained a level of natural reproduction. This natural reproduction was important for the continuation for slavery after the prohibition on slave importation in 1808 by Congress . Much of the slave trade was conducted on the basis of the " Triangular Trade ", an exchange of slaves, rum, and sugar. Southern planters purchased slaves using Rum , made in New England from Cane Sugar , which was in turn grown in the Caribbean . This slave trade was generally able to fulfill labor needs in the South from the cultivation of tobacco after the decline of indentured servants. At approximately the point when tobacco labor needs began to increase, the mortality of the colonies decreased. By the late 17th century and early 18th century, slaves became economically viable sources of labor for the growing tobacco culture. Also, further South than the Mid-Atlantic, Southern settlers grew wealthy by raising and selling Rice , Indigo , and Cotton . These plantations of South Carolina often became modeled on Caribbean plantations, yet never attained similar size. The growth of the Southern colonies ''For details on each specific colony, see Province Of Georgia , Province Of Maryland , Province Of North Carolina , Province Of South Carolina , and Virginia Colony .'' By the end of the 17th century, the number of colonists was growing. The large population centers were still in the northeastern and middle colonies, leaving the southern colonies of Maryland , Virginia , Georgia , North and South Carolina a rural frontier land. The economies of these colonies were tied to agriculture. During this time the great Plantation s were formed by wealthy colonists who saw great opportunity in the new country. Tobacco and Cotton were the main cash crops of the areas and were readily accepted by English buyers. Rice and Indigo were also grown in the area and exported to Europe . The plantation owners built a vast aristocratic life and accumulated a great deal of wealth from their land. They supported slavery as a means of working their land and tended to keep close ties with the European cultural circles. On the other side of the agricultural coin were the small yeoman farmers. They did not have the capability or wealth to create large plantations. Instead, they worked small tracts of land and developed a political activism in response to the growing Oligarchy of the plantation owners. Many politicians from this era were yeoman farmers speaking out to protect their rights as free men. Charleston became a booming trade town for the southern colonies. The abundance of Pine trees in the area provided raw materials for shipyards to develop and the harbor provided a safe port for English ships bringing in imported goods. The colonists exported tobacco, cotton and textiles and imported tea, sugar and slaves. The fact that these colonies maintained an independent trade relation with England and the rest of Europe became a major factor later on as tension mounted leading up to the Revolutionary War . After the late 17th century, the economies of the North and the South began to diverge, especially in coastal areas. The Southern emphasis on export production contrasted with the Northern emphasis on food production. By the mid-18th century, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia had formed as colonies of Britain, along with the later Southern state of Louisiana as a colony of France . For the upper colonies, that is, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and portions of North Carolina, the tobacco culture prevailed. However, in the lower colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, cultivation focused further on cotton and rice. THE SOUTH IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1776-1781) ''For main article, see At the start of the Revolutionary War , the focus was in the Northeast, but a stalemate quickly developed, causing the British to rethink their strategy. A plan was made that involved capturing the Southern colonies and sweeping north, effectively choking off the resistance. There was a sizable population of British sympathizers in The Carolinas and, though the populations of these colonies had surpassed some of their northern counterparts, the region was still mostly rural wilderness. Lord Cornwallis , the British commander of the Southern theater, was put in charge of executing the plans. Whereas New Englanders tended to stress their differences from the British, Southerners tended to emulate them. Much of this derived from the origins of many Southern immigrants. Much of New England had been populated by East Anglia emigrants, while the more rural and Aristocratic western England had supplied settlers for the South. Much of the activity of the Revolution in the lower South surrounded the British belief that Loyalist support would emerge in the South, thereby turning the tide of war in the colonies. However, due to interior non-slave owners and farmers, Virginia , the Carolinas , and Georgia emerged in support of the Patriot cause. In fact, Southerners were prominent among the leaders of the American Revolution and the Continental Congress ; four of the first five Presidents Of The United States were from the Southern state of Virginia . In 1778, British forces swept into the South, taking Savannah, Georgia . From there, the troops moved north, capturing the important port city of Charleston, South Carolina in 1780. Later that year, in a devastating blow to the Patriot forces, Cornwallis’ troops took Camden, South Carolina . It seemed that the campaign was a success and Cornwallis was ready to start moving north for the second part of his plan. In late 1780, the British army and its Loyalist corps began to encounter better-organized Patriot militias in the Carolinas. Cornwallis sent troops to quell the growing Patriot resistance in the area, but the British troops met defeat after defeat. The most significant of these defeats was the Cowpens in January 1781. Nathaniel Greene , the commander of the patriot forces in the South, then encountered Cornwallis’ troops in March 1781 at Guilford Courthouse . Cornwallis won this battle, but lost more than a third of his troops in the process. Patriot forces then advanced on the British Fort Ninety-Six, but never laid siege. British forces moved in to help defend the fort, causing Patriot forces to abandon their efforts. However, British forces did eventually abandon the fort and moved back to the coast. The British campaign in the South was over, and six months later Cornwallis surrendered, ending the war. ANTEBELLUM ERA (1781-1860) After the upheaval of the American Revolution effectively ended in 1781 at the Battle Of Yorktown , the South became a major political force in the development of the United States . With the ratification of the Articles Of Confederation , the South found political stability, with little federal interference in state affairs. However, with this stability came weakness by design, and the inability of the Confederation to maintain economic viability eventually forced the creation of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787 . Importantly, Southerners of 1861 often believed their secessionist efforts and the Civil War paralleled the American Revolution, as a military and ideological "replay" of the latter. Southern interests retained great control during the Constitutional Convention Of 1787 , forcing the inclusion of the "fugitive slave clause" and the " Three-Fifths Compromise ". Importantly, there was no explicit Anti-slavery position in the Constitution at the time of its Ratification . In spite of this, Congress retained the power to regulate slave importation 20 years after the ratification of the Constitution, and this resulted in an expected prohibition on slave imports by the Congress , effective January 1 , 1808 . While the two groups, both North and South, initially thought each other in agreement, they also held deeply rooted differences. After the convention, two emerging understandings of American Republicanism came to loggerheads. For the North, a Puritanical republicanism predominated, with leaders such as Alexander Hamilton and John Adams . In the South, Agrarian republicanism formed the basis of political culture. While both attempted to preserve their "way of life" in order to preserve the Union, their methods of this preservation were quite different. While Northern republicans aimed to make better people and thus ensure the survival of democracy, Southerners focused on making better conditions. Led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison , the Agrarian republican position is characterized by the Epitaph on the grave of Jefferson. While including his "condition bettering" roles in the foundation of the University Of Virginia , and the writing of the Declaration Of Independence and the Virginia Statutes On Religious Freedom , absent was his role in the federal government as President Of The United States . Southern development of political thought thus focused on the ideal of the Yeoman farmer; i.e., those who are tied to the land also have a vested interest in the stability and survival of the government. Antebellum slavery ''See also, History Of Slavery In The United States Although Slavery was legal in all original "Northern" states before the advent of "free states" in the decades following the American Revolutionary War , slavery in the South continued. While large Plantations with dozens or hundreds of slaves were rare, and usually found in the Deep South , the vast majority of Southerners never owned slaves. Most were independent yeoman farmers much like their counterparts in the North, and slavery was not part of everyday life for ordinary Southern citizens. Though some in the North felt that slavery was a Moral issue, many Northerners felt that the abolition of slavery would be detrimental to economic interests; especially in later decades, a decrease of Cotton cultivation could damage the emerging Northern Textile industry. In spite of this, the slave system represented the basis of the Southern social and economic system, and thus even non-slave owners often virulently defended it against Abolitionism or Gradual Emancipation . Nullification crisis, political representation, and rising sectionalism ''See also, Nullification and Nullification Crisis '' The election of Federalist John Adams in the Election Of 1796 came in tandem with escalating tensions with France . In 1798 , the XYZ Affair brought these tensions to the fore, and Adams became concerned about French power in America, fearing internal Sabotage and malcontent brought on by French agents. Due to this and repeated attacks on Adams by Democratic-Republican publishers, Adams allowed the passage of the Alien And Sedition Acts . Enforcement of the acts resulted in the jailing of "seditious" Republican editors throughout the North and South, and prompted Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to author the Kentucky And Virginia Resolutions of 1798, later known as the "Principles of '98" by nullification leaders. These "Principles of '98" called upon state legislatures to act against unlawful acts of the federal Congress by threat of nullification by the states. While primarily a Propaganda document with no legal force, South Carolina leaders of the late 1820s used its premise to support actual nullification. The Nullification Crisis came as a result of the Tariff Of 1828 , which was passed as a protectionary measure for Northern industry. In 1832 , in that same year the legislature of South Carolina nullified the entire "Tariff of Abominations" as the Tariff of 1828 was known in the South, prompting a stand-off between the state and federal government. The crisis was resolved through a combination of the actions of President Andrew Jackson , Congressional reduction of the tariff, and the Force Bill . Also, the crisis was of great importance for the later development of Secessionist thought. As the population in the North grew from an influx of European immigrants, Northern representation in Congress also grew to a number that made Southern political leadership increasingly uncomfortable. Southerners became concerned that they would soon find themselves at the mercy of a federal government in which they no longer had an effective voice. By the late 1840s , Senator Jefferson Davis from Mississippi stated that this new Northern majority in the Congress would make the government of the United States "an engine of Northern aggrandizement" and that Northern leaders had an agenda to "promote the industry of the United States at the expense of the people of the South." An additional factor that led to Southern Sectionalism was the proliferation of cultural and literary magazines such as the '' Southern Literary Messenger '' and '' DeBow's Review ''. {Link without Title} Election of 1860, Secession, and Lincoln's response Fears of a Northern Republican presidential victory became reality after the Members of the South Carolina legislature had previously sworn to Secede from the Union if Lincoln was elected, thus prompting the secession of that state on December 20 , 1860 . Following South Carolina, the Mississippi legislature voted for secession on January 9 , 1861 , with Florida on the 10th. Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , and Texas followed within the next month. The sitting " Lame Duck " President, James Buchanan , felt himself powerless to act. Throughout the South, authorities occupied federal Arsenal s and Fortifications without resistance. In the four months between Lincoln's election and his inauguration, the South strengthened its position unmolested. Once in office, Lincoln was initially unwilling to compel the Southern states back into the Union, deciding to allow Southern aggression to promote Northern support for forcible compulsion. When a supply ship was dispatched to federal-held , 1861 , forcing rapid capitulation of the fort. In response to the attack on Fort Sumter, President Lincoln immediately called upon the states to supply 75,000 troops to serve for ninety days against “combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.” as a result of this call by the widely unsupported Lincoln for troops to invade another Southern state, Virginia , Arkansas , and Tennessee promptly seceded. Formation of the Confederacy The eleven Southern states that left the Union formed a separate nation, the Confederate States Of America . The war that broke out was called the American Civil War in the North, but it was called the "War for Southern Independence," "The War Between the States," and "The War of Northern Aggression" in the South. The variations are indicative of the differing perceptions of the war in the South. The war was fought mostly on Southern lands, which prompts many contemporary Southerners to quip, "There was nothing civil about it." During the war, the pro-Union northwestern region of Confederate Virginia seceded to become the new Union state of West Virginia . Several other Southern states also had areas with strong Union sympathies; generally these were upland areas where plantation-style agriculture and hence widespread slavery had never been feasible. Likewise, many Northern states had regions with Southern sympathies, especially in the border states. CIVIL WAR (1860-1865) ''For details, see main article American Civil War .'' The American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 devastated the Old South socially and economically. Before the war, the South was the wealthiest part of the United States. After the war, during the Reconstruction period, the South struggled to rise from poverty and worked to establish a successful economy from the ashes. Richmond, Virginia , the former Capital of the Confederacy, grew quickly mostly due to its railroads, canals, and cutting edge electric trolley system, and later its Federal Reserve Bank . Out-gunned, out-manned, and out-financed, defeat loomed over the head of the Confederacy after four years of fighting. Jefferson Davis , President of the Confederacy, advocated resorting to guerrilla warfare to extend the struggle for an even longer time, but his generals, notably Robert E. Lee , felt the honorable thing to do was to end the war and begin reconciliation with the North. RECONSTRUCTION (1865-1877) See Also: Reconstruction Abolition of slavery At the outbreak of the war, slavery was legal in the Northern States of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. Slavery was also legal in Washington D.C. and remained legal in the new Union State of West Virginia. On January 1, 1863, as the third year of the war approached, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation , which freed slaves in US states not under Federal control. This had several effects to include augmenting the ranks of the Union Army with black soldiers, as well as transforming the character of the war into a crusade for Freedom . The Emancipation Proclamation was, however, limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most importantly, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory. In 1864, a year before the war came to an end, the Southern States of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana abolished slavery. Contrary to common belief, the end of the war did not equate to the end of slavery. Slavery still existed in some states until the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution passed in December 1865, eight months after General Lee's surrender. Military occupation After the war, the South was divided into five occupation zones:
The state of Tennessee was exempted from the rule of military occupation, largely due to the influence of President Andrew Johnson , a native of Tennessee. About 200,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in the U.S. Southern States to oversee the process of Reconstruction. Governments that had been established under Abraham Lincoln's plan were abolished; the first Reconstruction Act stated that "no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exist in the rebel States." Backlash to Reconstruction While Reconstruction was a harsh time for many white Southerners who found themselves without many of the basic rights of citizenship (such as the ability to vote), Reconstruction was also a time when many African Americans began to secure these same rights. With the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution Of The United States (which outlawed slavery), the 14th Amendment (which granted full U.S. citizenship to African American s) and the 15th Amendment (which extended the right to vote to Black males), African Americans in the South began to enjoy more rights than they had ever had in the region. Suth was rural in 1890
RACE: FROM JIM CROW TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT After the Redeemers took control in the mid 1870s, Jim Crow Law s were created to legally enforce Racial Segregation . The most extreme white leader was Senator Ben Tillman of South Carolina , who proudly proclaimed in 1900 , "We have done our level best prevent blacks from voting ...we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it." (Logan, p. 91) With no voting rights and no voice in government, Blacks in the South were subjected to a system of segregation and discrimination. Blacks and whites attended separate schools. Blacks could not serve on juries, which meant that they had little if any legal recourse. In '' Black Boy '', an autobiographical account of life during this time, Richard Wright writes about being struck with a bottle and knocked from a moving truck for failing to call a white man "sir" (Wright, Chapter Nine). Between 1889 and 1922 , the NAACP calculates that lynchings reached their worst level in history, with almost 3,500 people, three-fourths of them black men, murdered. {Link without Title} In response to this treatment, the South witnessed two major events in the lives of 20th century African Americans: the Great Migration and the American Civil Rights Movement . The Great Migration began during World War I , hitting its high point during World War II . During this migration, Black people left the racism and lack of opportunities in the South and settled in northern cities like Chicago , where they found work in factories and other sectors of the economy. (Katzman, 1996) This migration produced a new sense of independence in the Black community and contributed to the vibrant Black urban culture seen during the Harlem Renaissance . The migration also empowered the growing American Civil Rights Movement . While the Civil Rights movement existed in all parts of the United States, its focus was against the Jim Crow laws in the South. Most of the major events in the movement occurred in the South, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott , the Mississippi Freedom Summer , the March on Selma, Alabama , and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. . In addition, some of the most important writings to come out of the movement were written in the South, such as King's " Letter From Birmingham Jail ". As a result of the Civil Rights Laws of 1964 and 1965 all Jim Crow laws across the South were dropped. This change in the South's racial climate combined with the new industrialization in the region to help usher in what is called the New South. DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION OF THE "NEW SOUTH" (1945-PRESENT) In the decades after World War II, the old agrarian Southern economy evolved into the "New South" – a manufacturing region with strong roots in Northern-style financial capitalism. As a result, high-rise buildings began to crowd the skylines of Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, Nashville, and Little Rock. This industrialization and modernization of the South picked up speed with the ending of racial segregation laws in the 1970s . Today, the economy of the South is a diverse mixture of agriculture, light and heavy industry, tourism, and high technology companies. In addition, since the end of the Civil Rights Movement, the region has found itself often leading the country in working to end racial strife. As proof of this, some people cite the fact that a second Great Migration appears to be underway, with African Americans whose parents left the South two generations ago moving back to the region in record numbers. SEE ALSO
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