From: Kristi De Simone
Date: 4/26/00
Time: 4:57:03 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.244.82
Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War left the South shattered, depressed and impoverished. The North made slavery dead in the South, but the future of relationships between blacks and whites was still at question in many people minds. The Civil War ruined the southern landscape and destroyed its economy. South Carolina, one very shattered area looked to an 1865 observer "like a broad black streak of ruin and desolation- the fences are gone; lonesome smokestacks, surrounded by dark heaps of ashes, marking the spots where human habitations had stood; the field all along the roads widely overgrown with weeds, with here and there a sickly patch of cotton or corn cultivated by Negro squatters". The Civil War armies left the space basically barren. Fire gutted several major cities including Atlanta, Columbia, and Richmond. Most Factories were disconnected or disfigured, and long stretches of railroad were turn up. The physical ruin would not have been so disastrous if investment capital had been available for rebuilding. The wealth of the confederates melted away. Reconstruction was about economic opportunity for freedmen and civil and political rights for them. Blacks strongly preferred to determine their own economic relationships, and for a time they had reason to hope the federal government would support their hopes. The freedman often had ideas about freedom that contradicted the plans of their northern allies. The freed man didn't get as many freedom opportunities as they did economic chances. While not guaranteeing all of the freed slave's hopes for economic self - determination, the northern military attempted to establish a new economic base for the freed men and women. The civil war was won and the freedman had opportunities for political and economic strength. It was then found out by the freedmen that a war just ended and now they must fight again, The x-slaves now had to fight for work and political rights.
Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War left the South shattered, depressed and impoverished. The North made slavery dead in the South, but the future of relationships between blacks and whites was still at question in many people minds. The Civil War ruined the southern landscape and destroyed its economy. South Carolina, one very shattered area looked to an 1865 observer "like a broad black streak of ruin and desolation- the fences are gone; lonesome smokestacks, surrounded by dark heaps of ashes, marking the spots where human habitations had stood; the field all along the roads widely overgrown with weeds, with here and there a sickly patch of cotton or corn cultivated by Negro squatters". The Civil War armies left the space basically barren. Fire gutted several major cities including Atlanta, Columbia, and Richmond. Most Factories were disconnected or disfigured, and long stretches of railroad were turn up. The physical ruin would not have been so disastrous if investment capital had been available for rebuilding. The wealth of the confederates melted away. Reconstruction was about economic opportunity for freedmen and civil and political rights for them. Blacks strongly preferred to determine their own economic relationships, and for a time they had reason to hope the federal government would support their hopes. The freedman often had ideas about freedom that contradicted the plans of their northern allies. The freed man didn't get as many freedom opportunities as they did economic chances. While not guaranteeing all of the freed slave's hopes for economic self - determination, the northern military attempted to establish a new economic base for the freed men and women. The civil war was won and the freedman had opportunities for political and economic strength. It was then found out by the freedmen that a war just ended and now they must fight again, The x-slaves now had to fight for work and political rights.