“A Re-evaluation of the New South Creed: Thomas Goode Jones and the American South after the Civil War”

Brent Aucoin, Williams Baptist College

This paper examines the political philosophy and career of Thomas Goode Jones (1844-1914), who played an active role in “redeeming” Alabama from Republican rule, served two terms as governor of Alabama (1890-1894) and sat on the federal bench from 1901 to 1914.  In particular, this paper focuses on Jones’s prescription for the creation of a “New South” after the American Civil War. Jones sought to create a South that would experience economic prosperity, racial harmony, political stability, and responsible, efficient government.  This program for reconstituting the American South after the Civil War and Reconstruction is essentially (though not exactly) that identified as “the New South Creed” by Paul M. Gaston and other historians.    This plan or creed, which is based on the concept of paternalism—noblesse oblige—is in a state of disrepute with present-day historians. The success of the “Second Reconstruction” has led historians to champion the first Reconstruction as the course that, had it not been cut short, would have been best for the South to have taken.  The purpose of this paper is not so much to challenge that assertion, but rather to demonstrate that the “New South” plan was better than what ultimately happened: governmental retrenchment, de jure disfranchisement and segregation, and reliance on the cotton economy.  

After fighting under Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and General John Brown Gordon during the Civil War, Jones returned home to Alabama where he gained a reputation as an “apostle of unity” by encouraging southerners to forget the war and to reconcile with the North. He also helped the Alabama Democratic party to oust the Republicans from power in the state.  But his vision for Democratic rule in the South differed significantly from the way historians say the “Redeemer” Democrats actually governed the region.  For example, instead of calling for a cut in taxes and government services, Jones, advocated a more active government, funded by revenue generated by higher taxes.  Instead of supporting the convict leasing system as a means of cutting state expenses, Governor Jones sought to eradicate the system—which he nearly did— and replace it with a more humane, modern system of incarceration.  Most significantly, Jones demanded equal justice for African-Americans.  He crusaded against the lynching of blacks and even called for the federal government to intervene when state and local authorities failed to prevent a lynching or to punish the guilty parties.  He sought an increase of appropriations for black educational institutions and helped to bring about the demise of debt peonage, which kept a significant proportion of Alabama blacks in a condition of servitude.  And lastly, he became a leading white opponent of the movement to disfranchise African-Americans in Alabama. 

 This partial list reveals where Jones diverged from the opinions of most white Southerners on several important issues.  But like most white southerners, he also advocated white control of the South, though Jones did not view this as something that was to last forever.  To put it simply—maybe too simply—Jones’s vision for the postbellum South can be seen as a middle ground between the more radical Republican approach and that of leading Democrats, who seemed more determined to re-create the Old South than establish a new one.