in that specialists have been asked to treat the manifold interests of the South in detail. These writers represent a wide distribution geographically as well as in range of historical studies. Hence, it is confidently believed, a certain richness in variety as well as accuracy in reproducing the essential factors in Southern life, is to be found in the following pages, the product of the labor of scores of men representing individual and local angles of vision.

And yet unity characterizes the South, and it is this fact that has impressed the world. This unity in thought and feeling has become current in such fixed phrases as "the solid South," which implies an economic and social as well as a political solidarity. The bonds of union have undoubtedly been strong, bonds sympathetic growing out of common experiences in struggle and suffering. There is a community of feeling among all Southern people, a type of local patriotism that has stood the test of self-sacrifice and war. The South has been welded by sorrow. The fact is that local attachments seem to strike deeper rootage in this soil than in some other portions of our country, due perhaps to the warmth of our natures and to the large part that sentiment plays in our lives, as evidenced by the glow of hero-worship. A Virginian is loyal to his state, but he is scarcely less proud of his native county, the name of which he pronounces with reverence.

After all, territorial love is beautiful, and we are fain to admire it in the loyalty of the ancient Israelite to Jerusalem, of the Greek to Hellas, and of the Latin to Rome. It should be no less significant in the son of Georgia or South Carolina, despite the common rejoicing in the process of

fusion incident to American democracy and the assimilation of alien peoples.

We are rightly becoming increasingly responsive to humanity, irrespective of race and region; yet love of native land is a natural sentiment that inspires the noblest energies in kindred virtues, such as fondness for home, duty to the nation, and zeal in religion. It was the existence of this unity in Southern life that prompted the present work, which has almost the same definiteness in subject as a description of Tuscany or a history of Holland.

It must, however, be distinctly borne in mind that this is not a sectional treatment. Localism is not at variance with nationalism, any more than the individuality of the child mars the sympathy of the family as a whole. American life is continental, after the fashion of the vast extent of domain. Monotony in art, literature and social custom may result from the dead stretches in geography, the general resemblance in habits, and the republican uniformity in institutions. We should welcome localism, as Josiah Royce pleads, while at the same time we frown upon sectionalism as at war with the oneness of national life. Local self-government is the rich heritage of Teutonic peoples; and modern democracy, which makes for cosmopolitanism by reason of its genius for human brotherhood and universal education, will do well to conserve this original germ of freedom. The South has individuality as a region of well-defined economic interests and in the distinctive character of its people; and this fact is to be regarded as a national asset, just as the entrancing story of Scotland forms an integral part of Britain's history, or the finely-marked provincialism of New England has been a creative factor in the strenuous impulses and glowing ideals

of America. Southern issues are, therefore, viewed in the light of national destiny. This book has been conceived in a national spirit.

The South is to-day a laboratory for the study of sociological forces. The vital interest attaching to such problems, which are here presented in all their complexity, would alone necessitate and justify a work of this kind. The South is tugging at the most serious task in Christendom in trying to reconcile the interests of two races diverse in color and character, living upon the same soil, and having held strangely different relations to one another in the dramatic periods of their conjoined experiences. Such racial adjustment in society, industry and politics the South is endeavoring to achieve through the agency of the school. This region offers, consequently, the vastest experiment in education that has perhaps ever been attempted. The solution of the South's problem is primarily one of spirit. Can we energize reason and conscience to do their perfect work? Spirit as a sovereign genius presides over all the forces operative in this world-engaging social process that seeks "a more excellent way" of harmonizing the interests of different races according to the rule of mutual helpfulness. This issue is not the least of the reasons for believing that a volume on the "Social Life of the South in the Building of the Nation" has value both to this and other lands, since the right relation of races is a major task of the present world.

S. C. M.

PART I.

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE

SOUTH.

CHAPTER I.

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE UPPER SOUTH.

Social Life Before War of Secession.

NE of the sharpest contrasts in the social history of the United States is presented in the difference between the social life of the Upper South previous to the War of

Secession and its social life since. Before 1860 the most characteristic society of the region between the Patapsco and the Yadkin was in the rural districts. Love of the country and a passion for rural pursuits and pastimes had been inherited along with other traits of the English blood; and these feelings and tastes had grown rather than weakened with the progress of time. The plantation was the immemorial seat of the family affections and the permanent centre of the family interests. All that promoted the refinement and culture of the people, all that exercised the most powerful influence in moulding their social spirit, all that sustained and advanced their economic welfare, sprang almost exclusively out of the rural communities; the leaders and exemplars of the social life

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