A short history of Griffin, Georgia, part three

1866-1880

Immediately after the end of the War Between the States, those Confederate soldiers and sailors who survived the war returned home to Griffin to a place devastated by Sherman's war on the civilians of Georgia. Griffin itself had avoided the destruction of its commercial buildings and railroads. However, the railroad line leading from Griffin to the outside world and buildings of any commercial or military importance in the area had been destroyed. The slave labor was no longer available as it had been before the war. For the former slaves, those who didn't leave to seek their fortune in the west or north, had no capital or property with which to start their own lives.

After the assassination of President Lincoln the radical Republicans instituted Reconstruction and posted military authority over the states of the former Confederacy. Former soldiers and sailors in the Confederacy were not immediately allowed to hold office, vote, or exercise their civil rights. Opportunists from the north came down to the South to take advantage of the opportunities available in a beaten region. To many citizens of Griffin it must have felt as if the world had turned upside down.

There was severe economic breakdown in Griffin which lasted for fifteen years. During this time, the citizens of Griffin made do with what they had and the area struggled to survive. Many citizens left Griffin to find their fortunes elsewhere. The commerce and infrastructure which had meant so much to Griffin slowly attempted to return to health.

The farmers and landowners in the area instituted a system of tenant farming which allowed them to begin cultivating their land. However, this system didn't replace the cheap labor to the landowners and constituted a new type of involuntary servitude for the former slaves which lasted for another one hundred years.

Then Reconstruction ended and the real struggle began. Life in the tenant farm system became mean and desperate. This was the system which created the hatred and inequity which lasted another one hundred years or more.

Wealth derived from agriculture peaked in this area about the time that the industrial revolution began in earnest. That is not to say that agriculture died with the coming of industry and manufacturing. Agriculture continued to survive long into the twentieth century and still remains as a viable source of income today. However, the income derived from agriculture is swayed by so many factors which are only slightly manageable. Weather, soil conditions, the cost of land, equipment and labor and market conditions are only a few parts of what goes into the economy of agriculture. This has always been the case. The coming of the Civil War and the adjustments which occurred during Reconstruction were the birth pains of a new economy in Griffin and Spalding County.