Ecological Transformation
of the South

U.S. Environmental History

European Colonies and the Land

¡ Bounding the land: property & fences

¡ Getting rid of trees

¡ Cutting valuable timber

¡ Slash, burn, exhaust

¡ Cattle: effects on soil and grass

¡ Declining soil fertility

¡ Frontier economics: land cheap, labor dear

The Southern ecosystem

¡ European impressions: “Eden”

The Southern ecosystem

¡ Old soils

The Southern ecosystem

¡ Warm, moist climate

The Southern ecosystem

¡ Great biodiversity

The Southern ecosystem

¡ Upland soils quickly exhausted

The Southern ecosystem

¡ Rich bottomland soils

The Southern ecosystem

¡ Perfect climate for disease, especially African

¡ Malaria

¡ Yellow fever

¡ Hookworm

Virginia Company, 1607

¡ Business venture

¡ Climate confusion

¡ Hybridization of tobacco

Southern farms and plantations

¡ Tobacco & corn

¡ Pigs and cattle

¡ Clear, plant, exhaust, abandon

¡ Shallow plowing + heavy rains = erosion

South Carolina: Rice colony

¡ Conversion of marshlands into rice fields

¡ Mosquito problem

¡ Malaria and yellow fever

¡ Effect on labor supply

¡ Importation of Africans

¡ Black majority in South Carolina

¡ Separation of the races

¡ Whites in uplands or summer in Charleston

The “Cotton Rush,” 1815-1840

¡ Driven by industrialization & invention

¡ Rise of textile mills

¡ Cotton gin

¡ Late removal of Indians

¡ Plantations on rich lands

¡ Exhaust land, move west

¡ Eastern states’ poor condition

The Land of Cotton

Aftermath

¡ Postslavery: tenantry and sharecropping

¡ Overproduction and poverty

¡ Boll weevil dethrones King Cotton at last in 20th century

Widespread erosion by 20th century

Reforming Southern agriculture

¡ Mainly prominent planters

¡ Thomas Jefferson: scientific soil conservation

¡ Edmund Ruffin: soil & slavery

¡ Guano craze, 1850s

¡ Failure of reform

¡ Continuous opening up of new, rich, cheap land

¡ Profit concerns: labor spent on conservation taken away from cotton

¡ Plantations: America’s first agribusiness

Southern culture & politics

¡ Society based on commodity agriculture

¡ Scattered, rural population, without a civic culture

¡ Wealth based on exploitation of land and labor

¡ Individualistic and competitive

¡ Frontier conditions slow to disappear: Violence, illiteracy

¡ Slaveowners wanted no govt. interference, low taxes

¡ Goal: Protect power and profits

¡ Control government to protect their interests

¡ Constitution prohibits taxing Southern wealth, extends Southern political clout

¡ Thomas Jefferson & Andrew Jackson: champions of “freedom”

Small government, low taxes

¡ Greatest gap between rich and poor

¡ Conservative and least innovative

¡ Most violent

¡ Worst human rights record

¡ Least education (and most illiteracy)

¡ Fewest public amenities

¡ Parks, libraries, etc.

¡ Weak social services

Environmental legacies

¡ Weak environmental movement

¡ Weak environmental regulations

Environmental legacies

¡ Clearcutting hardwood, longleaf pine, cypress

Environmental legacies

¡ Oil and gas damage to land, coastline, Gulf of Mexico

Environmental legacies

¡ Urban sprawl and loose zoning laws

Environmental legacies

¡ Louisiana’s “Chemical Corridor” (a.k.a. “Cancer Alley”)

Environmental legacies

¡ Rise of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

¡ Feedlots for cattle; huge hog farms; chicken and turkey

¡ Animal misery

¡ The problem of antibiotics

¡ Environmental issue: massive amounts of animal waste

Environmental legacies

¡ Mountaintop removal