Why was the "New South" more a slogan than a reality? What specific facts should be looked at to support both points of views?
Post-Civil War, the South was revitalized thanks to Federal legislation (the 13th through 15th Amendments, which secured legal rights for blacks), a shifting population composition (the so-called carpetbaggers, newly freed blacks), and an economic overhaul (agricultural diversification, hydroelectricity). They became less financially vulnerable as they shifted from a one-crop economy to a relatively balanced producer of cane sugar, tobacco, and other valuable crops and resources like coal and timber. Under the leadership of philanthropists like John F. Slater, the first seeds of public education were planted in the South. In many ways, the South truly was "new."
Tragically, the racial prejudice that had pervaded the region since its earliest days did not end with the beginning of Reconstruction. This was never more evident than after the Compromise of 1877, when Northern troops were finally relieved of their "peacekeeping" duties in the South. Freed from the watchful eyes of the North, Southerners returned to their racist and bigoted ways.
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