Entrepreneurs in the Southern Upcountry: The Case of Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1815-1880

Most business histories of the nineteenth-century southern upcountryfocus on the shift from a protocapitalist, yeoman-oriented antebellumperiod to the rapid commercialization and industrializationof the New South era. These studies generally argue for a sharpbreak in the economic leadership of the region either throughthe rise of a new business elite, or the reorientation of anagrarian regime. Through a study of Spartanburg, South Carolina,my work challenges this notion of a sharp break and insteadfinds a vibrant, town-based entrepreneurial elite in both theantebellum and postbellum periods. The revolution that occurredwas in the nature of South Carolina's political economy. Spartanburg'sentrepreneurs, who struggled to achieve their goals in the antebellumera, found new opportunities as a result of post-war politicalrealignments and the racial politics of Reconstruction. Thisbusiness history at the community level adds an important chapterto our understanding of the political economy of the Old andNew Souths.