prejudices against industry weakened

On the positive side of the ledger far-reaching changes were being wrought in the Southern mind and economy which augured well for the woolen mill. Through-out the South, reaction to Northern abolition attacks and a growing sectional consciousness gave intensity to an increasing desire for economic independence from the North. Southern newspapers in the fifties sounded the call for Southern manufactures, for the "clattering of the busy looms," for the building of cotton and woolen mills and a wide range of business activities. Old prejudices against industry weakened in the face of a movement which brought to the South an increase of 143 percent in woolen manufacture, 65 percent in the production of men's clothing, and 90 percent in the making of boots and shoes. --Harry Poindexter