Industrialization of the South

In 1900, industry remained largely confined to the extraction of raw materials and the procession of agricultural products. Much of the South's nonagricultural economy was devoted to commerce rather than manufacturing. After 1900, the proliferation of electric power and the automobile allowed even greater dispersal of manufacturing facilities. Industrialists chose locations where they could draw on a surplus of underemployed agricultural workers hungry for steady work.

 

 

As of 1900, the New South movement toward industrialization had failed to change the South's economic position relative to that of other parts of the nation. Despite an increase in the number of factories, the South remained mainly agricultural. Traditionally, the most important sector of southern industry has been cotton textile manufacturing.