The Conquest of Labor: Daniel Pratt and Southern Industrialization (review)

What were the roles of industrialists in the Old South and the New South? Were they self-directed leaders with a modern vision for their region's future? Or were they tools of the premodern planter elite that dominated southern society and commerce? Curtis J. Evans addresses these and other questions through the life of Daniel Pratt, and concludes that Pratt successfully promoted industrialization, avoided becoming subservient to the planter elite, and enjoyed widespread respect for his accomplishments.

A native of New Hampshire, Pratt first migrated to Georgia, where he gained experience in the manufacture of cotton gins. In 1833 he moved to Alabama, settled a few miles northwest of Montgomery, and began to build gins that he sold in the expanding cotton belt. As Pratt's business prospered, he began the manufacture of cotton textiles, employing both free labor and slaves. James De Bow, perhaps the most ardent advocate of southern economic diversification, was among those who lauded Pratt's contributions to the region's industrialization.

A devout Methodist, Pratt sought to build a moral society on the base of an industrial economy. To this end, he established the town of Prattville, complete with schools, churches, voluntary organizations, and other features of the ideal industrial village. He contributed large amounts of his time and money, encouraged his employees to make constructive use of their own spare time, showed no liking for the less prudent avocations of southern aristocrats, and deplored the latter's preoccupation with acquiring land and slaves to the long-term detriment of the sorts of sound agricultural and business practices that contributed to a stable society.

Pratt's interests extended beyond his business and his local community to include the welfare of his state and region. In the face of powerful opposition, he promoted banking and railroads as vital to southern economic development. As southerners became increasingly defensive about efforts to abolish slavery or curtail its expansion, and talk of secession rose, Pratt counseled caution, for he feared that his region lacked the industrial resources to win a war of attrition. Eventually Pratt served in the state legislature, where he promoted the industrial and economic development of Alabama. In 1860 he supported the Constitutional Union party, and, following the election of Abraham Lincoln, he opposed secession. Though radical secessionists attacked Pratt's moderate views, others respected his caution.

After the Civil War, Pratt appeared as a prophet whose antebellum words and deeds foretold the promise of the New South. He not only rebuilt his business and community, but also invested in the development of north Alabama's mineral wealth near Birmingham. Although he could have been elected governor, he declined to run because of failing health. When he died in 1873 the Montgomery Daily Advertiser and Mail eulogized him as "a singularly pure and upright man" whose death would evoke "profound sorrow" throughout Alabama. The editors concluded that Pratt's life demonstrated the level of respect that a northern-born man could achieve in the South.

Evans's biography does credit to Pratt. He demonstrates that Pratt lived outside the stereotype of an antebellum southern industrialist who meekly deferred to the planter elite. Instead, he remained true to his vision of industrialization as indispensable to a successful future for the region. Of course, Pratt did not break entirely with the ideals of the South's conservative, agrarian, slave-based society. He defended slavery first as a necessary evil and later as a positive good; he readily accepted that the planter elite enjoyed influence disproportionate to their numbers; he understood that his success as a gin manufacturer depended upon their success in cotton cultivation; and, when secession finally came, he defended it as a last resort in the South's attempt to preserve its peculiar institution.