Henry W. Grady, born in Athens in 1850, Grady became well known for his great ability as a writer and debater. After leaving the University of Georgia, he studied literature and history at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and later on persued a career in journalism. Throghout his life as a journalist, Grady managed several papers in the South and became an influential political figure in that with his arguments and easiness of conviction, he was able to push forward the nominations and candidacies of several of his fellow political members at the Atlanta Ring, a group of proindustry Democrats who believed firmly in the ideals of the New South. Grady firmly believed in the need to promote industrial investment from the North, a reinitiation of the Southern industries, a change in the trust between North and South to increase investment. When he returned to Atlanta, Grady dedicated himself to underlining the magnificence of Atlanta as a center over Macon, Athens and Augusta. Despite the favorable effects that Grady had to improve the economical growth of Georgia, but most importantly of Atlanta, he was highly critized by his peers and fellow Georgians for exposing the South with his ideas and policies to the control and subjugation of the North, selling the South to the North and inviting oppression on Souther farmers. He was also critized for attempting to show the North a more bening stand on the issue of freed slaves and slavery. Grady died on December of 1889.
