Slavery brought not only wealth but also roads, bridges, railroads, canals, and turnpikes to Augusta, in an elaborate display of building, enterprise, and growth.

Both counties exhibited elaborate built infrastructures of bridges, railroads, major roads, minor roads, footpaths, and wagon roads, but Augusta's road mileage per capita outpaced Franklin's and presented a highly developed economic infrastructure. The dense networks of transportation and communication made these places elaborately connected both internally and externally. Over half of Franklin residents lived within a mile of a town, while residents of Augusta often dwelt a few miles from villages. Major and minor roads criss-crossed both counties.

Augusta had more minor roads than Franklin, nearly double the mileage, but fewer major roads. For every square mile of the county, Franklin had 1.26 miles of major road and .53 miles of minor road, while Augusta had .64 miles of major road and 1.23 miles of minor road. It is possible that Franklin's commitment to major roads was tied to its significant wheat production and that Augusta's greater reliance on minor roads showed its localized corn production. Augusta, though, had a higher per capita number of miles of both major and minor roads than Franklin. Northern visitors, then, might have seen few major roads in the Southern community and considered it less invested in transportation. Augustans, on the other hand, could see that for every person in the county they had made a significant investment in local transportation.

Augusta County, Va., Railroads and Roads (map)

Augusta County, Va., Rivers (map)

Comparison, Railroads and Roads (map)

Comparison, Rivers (map)

Distances to Major Institutions (table)

Franklin County, Pa., Railroads and Roads (map)

Franklin County, Pa., Rivers (map)

Road Networks, Franklin and Augusta Counties, 1860 (table)

Related Historiography

Randolph B. Campbell, "Planters and Plain Folk: Harrison County, Texas, as a Test Case, 1850-1860," Journal of Southern History XL (No. 3), (1974): 369-398.

Harry L. Watson, Jacksonian Politics and Community Conflict: The Emergence of the Second American Party System in Cumberland County, North Carolina (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981).

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