=The Social Effects of the Economic Changes.=—­As long as the slave system lasted and planting was the major interest, the South was bound to be sectional in character.  With slavery gone, crops diversified, natural resources developed, and industries promoted, the social order of the ante-bellum days inevitably dissolved; the South became more and more assimilated to the system of the North.  In this process several lines of development are evident.

In the first place we see the steady rise of the small farmer.  Even in the old days there had been a large class of white yeomen who owned no slaves and tilled the soil with their own hands, but they labored under severe handicaps.  They found the fertile lands of the coast and river valleys nearly all monopolized by planters, and they were by the force of circumstances driven into the uplands where the soil was thin and the crops were light.  Still they increased in numbers and zealously worked their freeholds.

The war proved to be their opportunity.  With the break-up of the plantations, they managed to buy land more worthy of their plows.  By intelligent labor and intensive cultivation they were able to restore much of the worn-out soil to its original fertility.  In the meantime they rose with their prosperity in the social and political scale.  It became common for the sons of white farmers to enter the professions, while their daughters went away to college and prepared for teaching.  Thus a more democratic tone was given to the white society of the South.  Moreover the migration to the North and West, which had formerly carried thousands of energetic sons and daughters to search for new homesteads, was materially reduced.  The energy of the agricultural population went into rehabilitation.

The increase in the number of independent farmers was accompanied by the rise of small towns and villages which gave diversity to the life of the South.  Before 1860 it was possible to travel through endless stretches of cotton and tobacco.  The social affairs of the planter’s family centered in the homestead even if they were occasionally interrupted by trips to distant cities or abroad.  Carpentry, bricklaying, and blacksmithing were usually done by slaves skilled in simple handicrafts.  Supplies were bought wholesale.  In this way there was little place in plantation economy for villages and towns with their stores and mechanics.

The abolition of slavery altered this.  Small farms spread out where plantations had once stood.  The skilled freedmen turned to agriculture rather than to handicrafts; white men of a business or mechanical bent found an opportunity to serve the needs of their communities.  So local merchants and mechanics became an important element in the social system.  In the county seats, once dominated by the planters, business and professional men assumed the leadership.