Shepherd W. McKinley (shepmck@juno.com)

"The Revolution After the War: Workers, Managers, and Entrepreneurs in South Carolina's Phosphate Industry, 1867-1900"

     Centered near Charleston, the South Carolina phosphate industry emerged shortly after the Civil War, dominated the world in the 1870s and 1880s, declined rapidly in the 1890s, and virtually disappeared by World War One. Phosphate was a major ingredient in commercial fertilizers, recognized by northern and European farmers as a necessity throughout the nineteenth century, but adopted by southerners only late in the century. This paper will use South Carolina's phosphate industry as a lens to examine the economic revolution in the low country overshadowed by the Civil War and the textile boom in the upcountry. >From within the phosphate industry, representatives of the planter culture, including factors, planters and scientists, and the freed people of the low country forged a new business culture and built the foundation for Charleston to move toward the "New South." A brief comparison with Florida's phosphate industry, South Carolina's successor, will provide context.