Fight for a New America

In December 1886, Henry Grady, editor of the popular Atlanta Constitution, spoke before the annual banquet of the New England Society of New York City. He announced, “There is a New South.” He had used the phrase “New South” before in an article he authored in 1874 to promote industrialization in the region. But standing before many Northern politicians, businessmen, and investors, he continued promoting, though this time he outdid himself. For Grady, the “Old South,” which had rested on slavery and undemocratic regimes vesting political and economic power in an elite planter class, was dead. The New South marked