54. Edward De Leon, “Ruin and Reconstruction of the Southern States. A Record of Two Tours in 1868 and 1873,” Southern Magazine 7 (January 1874): 17-41.


Comparison of the economic and social progress of Southern states during Reconstruction based on first-hand accounts gleaned on two trips five years apart. The author ends with an optimistic prediction. “The South is neither dead nor sleeping, but awakening to a new and more vigorous life than her old one, which, with the blessing of God, her sons will strive to make immortal. Esto perpetua!” (italics in original).