Franklin's wealth, like much of the North's, was located not in its cities and towns but in its rural agricultural land, where its richest citizens depended on the movement and production of wheat, oats, and livestock.

Franklin had a much higher proportion of households in its urban areas than Augusta. Its urban households' mean wealth ($4,759) was lower than its rural households' wealth ($7,334), but in Augusta mean urban wealth ($13,777) outpaced rural wealth ($12,006). Many of Augusta's leading citizens lived in town, at the same time owning and managing scattered plantations and businesses across the county. These men, especially those in the professions, probably considered Staunton, or even Waynesboro, a more cultured and connected place where the energy and talent of commerce congregated. In Augusta the smaller villages seem to have produced the same concentrating effect on wealth. In Franklin towns were more crowded and there the median wealth was significantly lower ($1,400) than the median wealth in the rural areas ($4,300).

Town and Rural Distribution of Household Wealth (table)

Related Historiography

Edward Pessen, "How Different from Each Other Were the Antebellum North and South," American Historical Review 85 (1980): 1119-1149.

Gavin Wright, Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy since the Civil War (Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1986).