University of North Carolina Press, 2003

One of the biggest stories in the South of a century ago was the mass migration from farms to cities. The movement had begun with the creation of railroads in the mid-nineteenth century, maturing into a full-fledged network by the 1890s. Rail junctions became hotbeds of economic opportunity, and the Old South of farmers began to transform into the New South of city-dwellers—the South we inhabit today.