Aftermath
Lost cause: the confederates longed for that time when all was well and they were a “perfect” place where slavery was allowed and now they see their “movement” as a lost cause. Everything they fought for was in vain and now they lost everything.
Potential opportunities from emancipation: now that slaves were freed, opportunities had been opened up to them.
Black men could now vote, the freedmen’s bureau provided food to former slaves and established schools, blacks received formerly white owned land until whites took it back and agreed upon sharecropping [get to that later]
Political effect: southern leaders were viewed as heroes and respected as if they were religious figures disagreements over what to do—intraparty fighting republicans dominated
Lincoln was assassinated
South is now ‘occupied territory’
Social Effect:
Bitterness and humiliation in the south
Resentment and grief led to an increase in racist attitudes
Mythology of davis, lee and lost cause
Civilians suffered—blacks became refugees
½ the military aged men in the south were dead white supremist attitudes grew as blacks fought for more freedom
4 million people were no longer slaves discrepancy between black and white views of freedom [southern whites stubbornly believed that blacks were inferior while blacks believed they were equal now that they have been freed
Economic effect:
2/3 of southern wealth eliminated more than 20 billion dollars for the cost of war not countring southern reconstruction or the loss in southern production shermans march northern economy grew southern per capita income went down
2/5 of southern livestock was destroyed
½ machinery was destroyed the south lost 4 million slaves per capita output didn’t return to its prewar levels until 1915
Presidential Reconstruction
10 percent plan: lincolns 10 percent plan for reconstruction was very lenient in that if 10% of the voters in