Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Agriculture in the New South (Making the Modern South)

In __Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Agriculture in the New South__ Jeannie Whayne employs the fascinating history of a powerful plantation owner in the Arkansas delta to recount the evolution of southern agriculture from the late nineteenth century through World War II. After his father’s death in 1870, Robert E. “Lee” Wilson inherited 400 acres of land in Mississippi County, Arkansas. Over his lifetime, he transformed that inheritance into a 50,000-acre lumber operation and cotton plantation. Early on, Wilson saw an opportunity in the swampy local terrain, which sold for as little as fifty cents an acre, to satisfy an expanding national market for Arkansas forest reserves. He also led the fundamental transformation of the landscape, involving the drainage of tens of thousands of acres of land, in order to create the vast agricultural empire he envisioned. A consummate manager, Wilson employed the tenancy and sharecropping system to his advantage while earning a reputation for fair treatment of laborers, a reputation—Whayne suggests—not entirely deserved. He cultivated a cadre of relatives and employees from whom he expected absolute devotion. Leveraging every asset during his life and often deeply in debt, Wilson saved his company from bankruptcy several times, leaving it to the next generation to successfully steer the business through the challenges of the 1930s and World War II. __Delta Empire__ traces the transition from the labor-intensive sharecropping and tenancy system to the capital-intensive neo-plantations of the post–World War II era to the portfolio plantation model. Through Wilson’s story Whayne provides a compelling case study of strategic innovation and the changing economy of the South in the late nineteenth century. In Delta Empire: Lee Wilson and the Transformation of Agriculture in the New South Jeannie Whayne employs the fascinating history of a powerful plantation owner in the Arkansas delta to recount the evolution of southern agriculture from the late nineteenth century through World War II. After his father's death in 1870, Robert E.'Lee'Wilson inherited 400 acres of land in Mississippi County, Arkansas. Over his lifetime, he transformed that inheritance into a 50,000-acre lumber operation and cotton plantation. Early on, Wilson saw an opportunity in the swampy local terrain, which sold for as little as fifty cents an acre, to satisfy an expanding national market for Arkansas forest reserves. He also led the fundamental transformation of the landscape, involving the drainage of tens of thousands of acres of land, in order to create the vast agricultural empire he envisioned. A consummate manager, Wilson employed the tenancy and sharecropping system to his advantage while earning a reputation for fair treatment of laborers, a reputation -- Whayne suggests -- not entirely deserved. He cultivated a cadre of relatives and employees from whom he expected absolute devotion. Leveraging every asset during his life and often deeply in debt, Wilson saved his company from bankruptcy several times, leaving it to the next generation to successfully steer the business through the challenges of the 1930s and World War II. Delta Empire traces the transition from the labor-intensive sharecropping and tenancy system to the capital-intensive neo-plantations of the post--World War II era to the portfolio plantation model. Through Wilson's story Whayne provides a compelling case study of strategic innovation and the changing economy of the South in the late nineteenth century. Whayne (history, U. of Arkansas), who has published and edited other books on Arkansas history, has written an in-depth account of the creation by Robert E. "Lee" Wilson of an enormous conglomeration of plantation operations in Arkansas. A lucid writer, Whayne has formed her account from a wealth of primary sources, including correspondence, newspaper accounts, court records, county and other land surveys, and other archives. Wilson's attitudes towards race are described deliberately and with insight, demonstrating the hardship and systemic inequity of life, pay, housing, and employment for blacks as well as the region's legacy of horrific intimidation and violence. Wilson logged and drained much of the area and this process, the environmental legacy of his activities, and the impact of the drought of 1930 are the subject of separate chapters. Carrying the account through Wilson's death and the new management of his empire by his son, and describing how farming practices were changed in efforts to accommodate flood and other environmental concerns, Whayne covers in fascinating detail the lives and effects on the land of over a century of agricultural activity in the lower Mississippi Delta In Delta Empire Jeannie Whayne employs the fascinating history of a powerful plantation owner in the Arkansas delta to recount the evolution of southern agriculture from the late nineteenth century through World War II. From a small inheritance, Robert E. "Lee" Wilson built a 50,000-acre lumbering and cotton plantation in Mississippi County, Arkansas. From early on, Wilson saw an opportunity in the swampy terrain, which sold for as little as fifty cents an acre, to build a lumber business that met the region's growing need for lumber. This foresight provided the foundation for his vast agricultural empire he envisioned Traces the transition from the labour-intensive sharecropping and tenancy system to the capital-intensive neo-plantations of the post-World War II era to the portfolio plantation model. Through Lee Wilson's story, Whayne provides a case study of strategic innovation and the changing economy of the American south in the late nineteenth century. The shaping of the land The making of the man A river of woe : reshaping the land A new South entrepreneur in the progressive era Building it of brick and hollow tile "The wind have changed" : the flood of 1927 "Get hard and raise hell" Changing of the guard The return of the "class boy" Appendix: Tables.