The process of transforming the Southern states after the Civil War, with an emphasis on modernization, industrialization, and racial reconciliation. The aim was to create a new economic and social order in the South.
Related terms
Industrialization: The shift from an agrarian society to one centered around factories and manufacturing.
Sharecropping: An agricultural labor system where landowners allow tenants to use their land in exchange for a share of the crops produced.
Jim Crow Laws: Racial segregation laws that enforced discrimination against African Americans in public facilities, schools, transportation, etc.