If this book make any contribution toward the knowledge and appreciation of Southern conditions, it must be by observing throughout two principles. The first is that no statement of fact be made without a basis in printed material, written memoranda, or personal memory of the testimony of people believed to speak the truth. The second is that in the discussion there be no animus against the South as a section or a people. I have found many friends there. I believe that the points of view of the reflective Northerner and the reflective Southerner are not so far apart as both have supposed; as a Union soldier's son I feel a personal warmth of admiration for the heroism of the rival army, and for the South as a whole; and I recognize the material growth, the intellectual uplift, and the moral fervor of the Southern people. In one sense I am a citizen of the Southland. When a few years ago at a Phi Beta Kappa dinner in Cambridge, the president of the University of North Carolina said: "I love North Carolina, I ought to love that State, because it is my native country!" President Eliot replied, when his turn came: "President Winston says that North Carolina is his native country; gentlemen, it's _our_ native country." For this reason has been chosen as the title of this book, "The Southern South." Leaving out of account those parts of the South, such as the peninsula of Florida, which are really transplanted portions of the North; setting aside also the manifold national characteristics shared by both sections, I shall attempt to consider those conditions and problems which are in a measure peculiar to the South. The aim of the work is not to cavil but to describe, with full realization that many of the things upon which comment is passed are criticised in the South, and have a counterpart in the North. Properly to acknowledge the information and impressions gained from friends, and sometimes from persons not so friendly, would require mention of scores of names; but I cannot forbear to recognize the candor and courtesy which, with few exceptions, have met my inquiries even from those who had little sympathy with what they presumed to be my views. The ground covered by the book was traversed in somewhat different analysis and briefer form in a course of lectures which I delivered before the Lowell Institute in Boston during February and March, 1908. Parts of the subject have also been summarized in a series of letters to the _Boston Transcript_, and an article in the _North American Review_, published in July, 1908. While a year's reflection and restatement in the light of additional evidence have not changed the essential conclusions, I have found myself continually infused with a stronger sense that the best will and effort of the best elements in the South are hampered and limited by the immense difficulties of those race relations which most contribute to keep alive a Southern South. CHAPTER I MATERIALS