Rhetorical Analysis Of Henry Grady's 'The New South'

As the Civil War came to an end, the South experienced an era of changes. One of the most popular speeches, explaining how the post-war South had grown out of its old customs and made progress, was Henry Grady’s The New South. This document is an important historical speech when comparing examinations of how life was for Southerners in the years following the Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877. Although this speech is very motivational, it differs from the reality of how the South was managing during this time period. Grady’s vision seemed almost too good to be true when covering the stance of the economy, the termination of slavery, and the attitudes of Confederate soldiers after the war. Grady’s view on the Old South was that
His words tell the audience that African Americans are no longer slaves due to laws protecting them from discrimination, are allowed to attend school along with white folk, and are thriving workers. This perspective of racial harmony does not show the truth about the way Negroes were treated after the War. Although there was political tension towards discrimination coming from the redeemers, those who tried to reestablish the old ways of the South, there were more pressing consequences for Negroes who fell under the pitfall of sharecropping. The history textbook, America: A Narrative History, shows that since slavery was not allowed, Southerners decided to give small shares of their land to Negroes, who would then be known as sharecroppers that paid their debt off in manual labor growing cash crops for their
It almost seems as though the Confederates were the victims, left with nothing but a thousand dead men and completely demolished hometowns. Building upon their “heroicness”, Grady speaks of how they got passed their hardships and came home inspired to start life over, with open and accepting arms to all. He does not seem apologetic at all of the way the South had acted during the war, giving the impression that they fought only to promote positive changes while still being the good guys in the end. All this only makes the South seem like it’s bad at handling loss. Not only do they refuse to admit that the war was based around the topic of slavery, but they are now trying to give themselves credit for being valiant people, while in reality they were still acting on their old viscous