Chapter 9, The Changing South

Being a history major, I think this has been my favorite chapter thus far.  I enjoyed reading about the changing South, and the long history that the region carries with it.  But to apply it to the San Francisco Bay Area is a different kind of history.  Like the Changing South, the bay area has a navigable waterway that was probably used to carry crops from one area to another.  Through there are no plantations of  any kind, there is an abundance of crop, such as the vineyards of Sonoma County, and the garlic of Gilroy, CA in Santa Clara County. 

Gilroy is considered the garlic capital,

www.upress.state.ms.us

With the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865, slavery was abolished.  But California was never a slave state.  During the Great Migration (1910-1940) about 2 million blacks would migrate out of the South and into other regions of the United States, including California.  What attracted them to the bay area were the abundant labor opportunities, and the economic diversity.  In addition to the appeal, CA offered aid to residents who were living in the state for only a year.  So if they were unemployed or needed assistance the state was willing to help them out. 

The Great Migration brought some to parts of CA,

www.epals.com

Another force had brought migration to the bay area, the Dust Bowl.  The harsh weather conditions of the Dust Bowl region - parts of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma - made many living in that area question whether or not they could survive there.

 www.english.illinois.edu

Dust storm in Oklahoma,

www.science.howstuffworks.com

Those that came to the bay area found that the weather was pleasant, and the soil was good enough to plant crops, without having the nasty dust storms.