Immigration in the American South 1864-1895

Description

After the Civil War, the southern states experienced a decline in the labor force, particularly those needed to work the fields. Consequently, the South gathered together to recruit immigrants, both foreign as well as domestic. This book examines these efforts, focusing on major southern immigration conventions and their objectives and accomplishments. During the last years of the 1860s, the individual southern states were occupied publishing descriptive handbooks expounding the reasons to relocate to their state. In 1876, 14 states gathered at a convention in New Orleans to address the issue of immigration. In 1883, the Southern Immigration Association of America was formed under the leadership of A.J. McWhirter. The following year, this organization held a three-day convention in Nashville. In 1888, the Southern Interstate Immigration Association held the first of at least three conventions in the town of Montgomery, followed in 1890 at Asheville and again in 1894 at Augusta. Included in this book are proceedings of the Southern Immigration Association Convention and the first convention of the Southern Interstate Immigration Association. Newspaper coverage of these major conventions and other smaller conventions is included. As the southern railroads played a major part in immigration efforts, this book also includes information on their role and activities in encouraging immigrants to relocate to southern states. In the concluding chapter, state-by-state charts analyze the state population statistics from 1870 to 1900.