Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. In regard to the individuals included, it may be said that the purpose has been to give the main factsof space forbid the treatment of all important per sons, hence the omission of some individuals rather prominent, especially in recent times. The average man of ability in the year 1800 exercised a stronger shaping inuence than a man of the same qualities in 1900. Consequently fuller treatment is given the early leaders. The value of the work then is in its accuracy and in the sympathetic point of view of the Writers, in the adequacy of treatment and in the completion of the general history by this biographical history of the South, a section where character, personality and individuality have always counted for so much. There is no better source of inspiration than the characters and achievements of these Southern men and women, who were the best products of the South, the rich fruitage of the Southern civilization.