Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-08-12
THE FUTURE INDUSTRIES OF THE
SOUTH.

More than three years have passed since
the war closed and the negro received his
freedom. We have suffered much in the
South for the want of his labor. Demoral-
lied aud bewildered by the suddenness and
thoroughness of the change in his cOndi-
ton, he has been an irregular and unrell-
able laborer. We sustained two losses IN
his emanclpation-the loss Of his value
and the loss of his yearly labor. But not
withslanding these heavy losses and nnmer-
GUS other hardship7, mishaps and troubles,
we have been steadily advancing in i'm
movement. There are cotton ralsers IN
the more Southern States, "a there are to-
bacco and wheat raisers in Virginia and
North Carolina who have money on hand.
Year after year their profits will solldity
into heavy capital, which will have to
be invested. Agricultural capital in the
years that have passed, was invested in
negroes and land. 1t will now seek new
investments. We already hear in one
Southern State Georgia. of fifty new fac
tories Every day factories and workshops
are springing up in these States. We be-
gin to find out that it is necessary for US to
realize all the profits on what we produce.
Heretofore we were content to produce the
raw material and sell ii to Northern manu-
facturers, who returned the fabrics TO us at
high profits to themselves. This idea is
very clearly stated in a letter from Mill
ledgeville, Georgia, which We find pub
lisheJ in the Hartford Times. The writer
says:
ave, as a people, are not going back
wards we are full of energy and life; our
fields are left us, and we will make cotton.
Now comes the question, what will the
planter do with his money hereafter? lie
cannot invest it, as heretofore, in negroes,
he does not want any more land hence he
must put it in such stock as will pay; and
az New England has grown rich by manu-
featuring cotton, we ask ourselves, why
can we not do the same thing? Here are
our fields, our water-power, and the con-
sumers all around us. Let us build facto-
ries let us become the active competitors
of New England let us keep our money
at home"
We must become manufacturers from
necessity. The writer continues:
"In less than ten years New England
will sigh for slave labor South. Mark the
prediction. The Southern planter with
his full purse will no longer visit the
he lilo W
You have literally killed the goose (the ne
groes) that laid the golden egg. To-day,
the merchants Of this city are spending
thousands of dollars annually for North
Carolina shoes, and tell me they don't
want Yankee shoes any longer as against
Norti. Carolina make The factory has
been built since the war. In Georgia, we
have incorporated no less than tfy manu-
featuring companies some have been
hnilt and are now in operation; others
will 90 ND az soon "a the capital can he
commanded. What | desire to gee are
more farms opened and capital turned IN
that direction"
In the more Southern States the lhcto-
ries will be for cotton here We will have
mills to grind all the wheat that can be
brought; We will work up iron and other
metals and wood into all the forms known
to human use; we will make instead OF
buying our shoes, saddles, brides. harness,
bands for machinery, etc, our hats aud the
various articles Of clothing. Let us but
get out Of the woddi, have fair start and
find ourselves with cash capital on hand,
and steam will whistle, furnaces glow, the
hammer resouud, aud the spindle VIM All
around Us. It's question yet to be de-
termined il the blow that struck down
Southern slavery will not smite down Ne"
England manufactures and transfer the
manufacturing sceptre from the North 10
the South