56 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



social life of the rural gentry, during the existence of slavery, one 

 of the most attractive in the world. 



What has become of the descendants of this rural gentry ? As 

 a body they are no longer to be found in the country. While 

 many have emigrated to other parts of the Union, the far greater 

 number have settled in the towns of the South. All the in- 

 fluences of the old system, as we have seen, tended directly to 

 the discouragement of the growth of cities ; all the currents ran 

 toward a dispersion of the population over an ever widening 

 extent of space. It is now precisely the reverse. The drift to- 

 ward the subdivision of land signifies a drift toward the con- 

 centration of population. The inability of the petty landholders 

 to produce on their own estates the artificial supplies they re- 

 quire, has increased the importance of the local distributing and 

 manufacturing centers, both great and small; the towns have 

 become steadily larger each year, partly in consequence of the 

 rising rural demand for manufactured supplies; while the 

 villages have grown because they have drawn to themselves a 

 greater number of tradesmen working in different departments. 



The comparative unprofitableness of agriculture under the 

 present system, unless the land is cultivated by the owner with his 

 own hands, thus cutting the expenses down to the smallest point, 

 prompted the descendants of the old higher planting class to re- 

 move to the Southern cities as offering a better opportunity for 

 the improvement of their fortunes. In addition, they expected 

 to find there the best social advantages which the new order 

 afforded. 



If we go to some Southern county, which, in times of slavery 

 was the seat of an intelligent, refined, and cultivated gentry, we 

 shall discover that the only society there possessing any distinc- 

 tion is centered in the courthouse town; and this society is 

 generally made up of families of professional men whose names 

 are amongst the most ancient and honorable in the history of 

 their State. The gentry of the South, from having been asso- 

 ciated only with life in the country, have become how thoroughly 

 identified with life in the city. The energy and ability that have 

 built up so many Southern towns in so short a time, have been 

 drawn, in largest measure, from a class that, before the War of 

 Secession, visited the city only in winter and looked upon the 



