School History of North Carolina Part 46

6. What female school is now mentioned?

7. What political changes were seen in the Presidential campaign of 1872?

8. What was said to have dictated this course? What was the general position of the people since the close of the war?

9. What was the cause of sectional prejudices continuing to exist?

10. In what characteristics do the American people stand high?

Why should all sectional animosities be speedily removed?

CHAPTER LXX.

THE COTTON TRADE AND FACTORIES.

A. D. 1878.

1873.

Previous to the introduction of Whitney's cotton gins there had been much attention bestowed by the people of the State upon the cultivation of flax. This crop was never reared for exportation, but for family use at home. Few of the ancient spinning-wheels can now be found, but they were once abundant and the manufacture of home made linen was common in North Carolina. This was even more the case than is now the preparation of woolen fabrics upon the handlooms of the families.

2. So soon as the lint cotton was cheaply separated from its seed, the great question of its universal use was solved. It could be so easily produced that no woolen or linen fabrics could hope to compete with it in the markets of the world. The good women of the State soon learned the economy of buying the cotton warp of the cloth wove at the farmhouses, but it was long before even this common domestic necessity was prepared for use in the South.

3. The cotton yarns were, until about 1840, almost all spun in New England and bought by the merchants in the large cities when laying in their semi-annual supplies of goods for the retail trade. The purchase of slaves and the cultivation of cotton so completely absorbed the energies of our people that no one invested capital in anything else, except, perhaps, some who preferred real estate for such a purpose.

4. But even before the civil war and the liberation of the slaves there were wise men who urged the propriety and profit of cotton mills in the South. Since the war there has been an immense development of this industry, and now the sound of the loom and spindle may be beard throughout the State. Hundreds of persons are employed in a single one of the cotton mills. In this way not only the wealth but the population of the section is increased by bringing in new settlers. The railways find added employment, and in some cases private residences are seen that are rural paradises in the beauty and comfort of their appointments. There is, in some of the western counties, large capital invested in mills for the manufacture of woolen yarns and cloth, from which satisfactory profits are realized.

Another one of the important industries of the State is the manufacture of paper. The daily and weekly newspapers of North Carolina are now largely supplied with printing papers by the mills of the State. The first paper mill in North Carolina was erected near Hillsboro, in 1778; the second one was built at Salem, in 1789, by Gotleib Shober.

5. North Carolina has ever been slow to change in the habits of her people. The ways of their forefathers always seem best to most of them until abundant example has shown the wisdom of an innovation. Steam, however, is usurping a place in every species of labor and motion. The great seines of Albemarle Sound, the printing press, the cotton gin and nearly everything else is now obedient to the tireless energies of this great motor.

6. When North Carolina shall have developed her system of transportation so that the coal and iron mines shall be more largely worked, and when, as now in Vermont, not only cotton but woolen factories shall be found in every section where such staples are produced; then, and not until then, will the civilization of the State be complete. They who merely produce raw material will ever be "hewers of wood and drawers of water"

to others who prepare such things for market.

7. Second alone in importance to the State at large, after the cotton factories, are those devoted to the handling and preparation of tobacco for the market. The western powers of Europe had, for many years, realized immense revenues by means of their imports and monopolies of the Virginia weed, before the government of the United States ever realized a dollar from all the vast production of this crop in the different States. So, too, in North Carolina, enterprise and capital had remained almost completely blind to the possibilities of the situation.

8. Though great quant.i.ties of tobacco had been grown in many of the counties, and the soil and climate were suited to the production of the finest and costliest grades, yet the farmers were content to raise such as commanded but humble prices, and but a small proportion of this was prepared for use in the vicinity of its production. In a few villages and on some of the farms were to be found small factories, which, with the rudest appliances, converted into plugs of chewing tobacco such portions of the crop of the neighborhood as could be probably sold from itinerant wagons.

9. These vehicles were sent to the eastern counties and even to portions of South Carolina and Georgia, to supply the farms and country stores. This traffic continued until the strong arm of the Federal government, by means of "Internal Revenue Laws," was interposed between the peddlers and their ancient profits. The bulk of the crop was sent, before this, to be manufactured at Richmond, Lynchburg and Danville, in Virginia. The fine brands of plug and all smoking tobacco used in North Carolina were received from these cities.

10. If he who adds to the number of gra.s.s blades is a public benefactor, then the creators of new industries and towns may well claim consideration along with the warrior and statesman.

In many towns and vast productions are modern States enabled to sustain the great and costly appliances of our new civilization.

With the railroad and factory come population and those advantages that can never be enjoyed by the people who lack numbers and wealth.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was a principle crop in North Carolina before the cotton gin was invented? What is said of the cultivation of flax?

2. Why did the production of cotton so rapidly take the place of flax?

3. How did the people invest nearly all their means?

4. What can you tell of the various cotton factories?

5. Why have not our people entered more largely into this cla.s.s of industry?

6. What better future prosperity is yet to be attained by the State?

7. What other great industry is now considered?

8. What had been the production in North Carolina?

9. What is said of the tobacco peddlers?

10. What sentiment animates the people of North Carolina?

CHAPTER LXXI.

PROGRESS OF MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT.

A. D. 1876 TO 1878.

1876.

In this state of advancement as to her material interests, North Carolina again became excited in 1876 over the choice of new men for Chief-Magistrates, both of the Republic and of the State.

2. After eight years of service as President of the United States, General Grant was retired to private life, and Governor Brogden, who had succeeded Governor Caldwell upon the death of the latter in 1874, was also near the end of his service as Governor of North Carolina. No Gubernatorial election was ever more exciting to the State. It resulted in the choice of ex- Governor Z. B. Vance over Judge Thomas Settle of the Supreme Court.

1877.

3. In the complications which resulted in the seating of Governor Hayes as President of the United States, there was such a change effected that the Federal army was no longer employed to uphold the reconstructed officials in Louisiana and South Carolina, and the people of those States, at last, were left to the management of their own affairs. With this consummation, so long and devoutly wished, came that peace and contentment to all sections which had been unknown since 1861.

4. The enormous increase in the amount and quality of cotton grown in North Carolina since the late war has been dependent upon the use of various fertilizers and other appliances of a better cultivation of the soil. The old habit of educated men, in committing their plantations and slaves to the management of overseers, has been almost wholly abandoned. Many individuals of the largest culture are now devoting their time and skill to the discovery of improved methods in agriculture, and North Carolina is reaping a golden harvest thereby.

1878.

5. No employment, except agriculture, exceeds in importance that of the merchant. North Carolina is shut off from foreign commerce by the sand barriers on the coast, Only at Beaufort, on Old Topsail Inlet, can be found such an entrance to internal waters as promises safety to the mariner who would approach with his deep-laden vessel. But, while this has precluded the possibility of great commercial activity in North Carolina, there has not been a lack of men, at any period of our history, to ill.u.s.trate the dignity and importance of legitimate traffic.

Cornelius Harnett and Joseph Hewes were as conspicuous for financial success as they were for patriotism during the Revolution.

6. With the return of peace to the belligerent States, North Carolina was commercially prostrate. The merchants and the banks were almost all ruined in the general impoverishment of their debtors. The supply of cotton which remained on hand at the cessation of hostilities was about all that had been left, in the general wreck, upon which trade could be again commenced with parties at a distance.

7. Raleigh had never been recognized as a trade centre. A few stores on Fayetteville street, between the State House and where the Federal building now stands, were the representatives of their cla.s.s in the city. Cotton was very little grown in that region of the State, and no market for its sale had even existed nearer than Norfolk and Petersburg.

8. But this state of things was not to continue. Numbers of young men, combining great energy and judgment with small capital, came to the city and began the work of expanding its trade and resources. It has not, like Durham, risen up in a few years from almost nothing, but so great a change has been wrought, that the story of its growth is one of the most striking incidents in the State's history. The extension of the railway lines has opened up new custom in many counties that had never previously dealt with merchants of the place.