mills."[48]

So strongly was he impressed with the essentially local character of the old mills, that he was inclined to look with pessimism upon the prospect of success for the present plants which have transcended the small sphere that in its very restriction protected them in privileged enjoyments.

It must be obvious from the foregoing considerations that a census enumeration of mills of the period cannot show internal characteristics which are all-important. But even the census returns, counting one plant like another, display the Southern industry at this stage in a feeble light. Some primary descriptive factors are lacking in the earliest reports of the census which are at all useful, but taking the four Southern States which were farthest advanced in the years 1840 and 1850—Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia—the showing may be summed up thus:

In 1840 Virginia had 22 establishments, $1,299,020 invested, 1816 operatives, 42,262 spindles and the plants consumed 17,785 bales of cotton. In 1850 the same State had twenty-seven mills, with a capital of $1,908,900 and 2,963 operatives.

In 1840 North Carolina had 25 establishments, $995,300 invested in these, 1219 operatives and 47,934 spindles.[49] Ten years later this State showed three more establishments, an investment of $1,058,800, 1619 operatives employed, 531,903 spindles and the number of bales consumed was 13,617.

South Carolina in 1840 had 15 plants, representing an investment of $617,450; there were 570 operatives and 16,353 spindles. By the next decade there were 18 establishments, the investment in them was $857,200, the operatives numbered 1,119 and the bales of cotton consumed 9,929.

Georgia at the earlier date contained 19 mills with an invested capital of $573,835,779 operatives and 42,589 spindles. In 1850 the number of plants had increased by sixteen, making 35; the investment had risen to $1,736,156; the operatives totalled 2,272; unfortunately the number of spindles is not contained in the census returns, but the consumption was 20,230 bales.

The Southern States as a whole in 1840 were able to report 248 establishments with a capital of $4,331,078; operatives were 6,642; spindles (an obviously incomplete summary) were 180,927. The same year the New England States as a whole showed 674 mills, with investment of $34,931,399, operatives numbering 46,834, and 1,497,394 spindles. The Southern States again, in 1850 had 166 plants, $1,256,056 invested, 10,043 operatives; the consumption was reported at 78,140 bales. At the same date the New England development was measured by 564 plants, capital of $53,832,430, 61,893 and a consumption of 430,603 bales.[50]

Many single mills in the South today represent more than the extent of the whole industry in the most forward Southern State in 1850.[51] Comparison of facts for all the Southern mills with those for the industry of New England perhaps serves to reflect back some light upon the status of the former plants specifically, which has been dwelt upon.

Of the plants in the South in this period it has been well observed that "The number of small carding and fulling mills and of little water-driven yarn factories, in this section before 1850, may have approached the number of textile factories in the same region today; ... but few of these establishments became commercial producers."[52]

Some evidences of industrial activity in the period to 1840, partly conscious and partly not so, which may be held to presage the later development are to be noticed. A localizing tendency of the textile industry in the decade from 1830 to 1840, held to have been guided by the conjunction of raw cotton, waterwheel and steamboat along the fall line of rivers—at such points as Richmond, Petersburg, Augusta, Columbus, Huntsville, Florence and the vicinity of Montgomery, Mr. Clark holds to be a "slow and unconscious development", during which William Gregg, "a single pioneer of large industry", made a systematic effort to "awaken the South to the peculiar advantages it enjoyed for cotton manufacturing."[53]

George Tucker, in his "Progress of the United States in Population and Wealth in Fifty Years", published in 1843, was the first to show that at 1840 in the older South slavery was displaying signs of decay from economic causes and that as a system it would finally lapse of its own accord.[54] Niles' Register, May 2, 1840, declared: "The South is rapidly becoming independent in almost every branch of manufacture. There are in North Carolina alone, at this day, a greater number of different kinds than ten years ago there were in the whole of the Southern States", and two weeks later the same paper took from the Raleigh, N.C., Register the assertion that "The enterprise of the citizens of this state is rapidly enabling it to become independent of the North in almost every branch of manufacture."[55]

Mr. Pleasants believes that agitation by press and public for a charge in industrial activities resulted in awakening North Carolina in the early thirties from the lethargy that had prevailed since 1810, so that "The people of the state became interested and soon a class of small manufacturers such as makers of carriages, wagons, and farm implements, coopers, wheelwrights, distillers, tanners, hatters and makers of boots and shoes, cabinets and chairs came into prominence and continued to thrive down to 1860. In addition to this class were the cotton, wool, and iron manufacturers who now began to appear and who became quite prominent after the building of railroads began."[56] It is, however, questionable whether it may be said truly that "the people of the state became interested"; certainly there was nothing like the sweep of public sentiment that appeared in 1880. Several years earlier the Tarboro, N.C. Free Press had carried this item: "A few days since twenty bales of cotton yarn were shipped from this place to the New York markets. They were from a manufactory of Joel Battle at the falls of Tar River.... Should the tariff bill meet with equal success with that of internal improvements, necessity will compel the people of the South and of North Carolina to join in the scuffle for the benefits anticipated