EFFECTS OF PREWAR SOUTH ON RECONSTRUCTION

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EFFECTS OF PRE-WAR SOUTH ON RECONSTRUCTION
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I. CONSEQUENCES OF AN AGRARIAN ECONOMY

• Low Population Density fewer people lived in
  the South
• Isolation families were scattered over greater
  distances than in the North
• Lack of Urban Centers fewer villages and towns
  grew into cities
• Provincialism the local mind set was focused on
  ones home area
• Homogenous Population very few people moved in
  or out of the area, all think alike same mind
  set
• Slavery only labor force that could work in
  this type of economy

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II. CONSEQUENCES OF SLAVERY ON THE SOUTH

• Cheap, reliable labor
• Inhibited immigration
• Inhibited the growth of industry
• Cultural influences food/cooking, folklore,
  music, dance, religion, etc.
• Myth of African/Black inferiority
• Racism/segregation

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g. Caste system - Black

• - Slave-Overseer black slaves that supervised
  the work of other slaves. Very high position in
  the slaves community.
• - House-slaves butler, maid, nanny, cook, wet
  nurse, teacher, seamstress, milliner, etc.
• - Skilled-slaves blacksmiths, wheelwrights,
  carpenters, coopers, artists, miller, etc.
• -Free Blacks either arrived free, escaped, were
  set free or purchased their freedom
• - Field-slaves labored in the fields, woods,
  mills, factories

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h. Caste system - White

• - Plantation owners less than 5
• - Planters slave owning non-slave owning
• - Yeoman Farmers small farms, owned very few or
  no slaves
• - Herdsmen small ranches/herds, free-range
  livestock, owned few or no slaves
• - Poor Whites White-Trash very poor whites

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III. CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR

• Capital Loss the 5th largest economy of the
  world was destroyed
• Loss of Labor slaves were freed, no cheap labor
  to fill void YET!!
• Physical Destruction everything was destroyed,
  majority of the War was fought in the South
• Frontier-like Conditions everything must be
  rebuilt.

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IV. CONSEQUESNCES OF RECONSTRUCTION

• Poverty no capital, total destruction, no
  labor, no transportation
• Colonial Economy Sharecropping Debit Peonage
• Institutionalized Racism forced on population
  by government, keep them from uniting
• Out-migration mass migration out of the South,
  mainly upper-class/caste whites, few blacks
  1870 91.5 of the Black population was still in
  the South
• Sectionalism/Regional Animosity hostile
  defensive towards outsiders, yankee,
  carpet-bagger, scallywag

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PLANS FOR RECONSTRUCTION

• Lincolns 10 Plan 1863
• Congressional Reconstruction 1864
• (the Wade-Davis Bill) Radical or Republican
  Reconstruction
• Johnsons Plan for Reconstruction - 1865