itself to any marked degree upon the nation's consciousness.
Nor is it surprising that it is only since the Civil War that the urban development of the South has begun to be of importance even to close students of the past and present of the section. From the time of the earliest settlements to the present day agriculture has been the dominant industry. Virginia tobacco, Carolina indigo and rice, far Southern and Southwestern cotton—these staples have meant more to the South than manufacturing or commerce. She developed seaports, which gradually lost their relative standing among the ports of the country and administrative and distributing centers; but there was no crowding of operatives into manufacturing towns, no haste on the part of country-bred youths to leave their native fields for the shops and warehouses and offices of the city. The gentleman's son looked forward in most cases to being a planter; the small farmer's son grew up in an environment that did not stimulate ambition. Cotton was king, and his court was bound to be a rural one.
It is not to be supposed, however, that during the period from 1820 to 1860, which
