#8 Analyze the economic consequences of the Civil War with respect to any two of the following in the United States between 1865 and 1880.
             Agriculture
             Labor
             Industrialization
             Transportation
            
            
             On April 9th, 1865, General Robert E. Lee, captain of the Confederate army surrendered to the Union, ending the Civil War. Though this was one of the most destructive wars in our nation's history, the repercussions the country felt economically, were drastic and contrasting. During the period known as reconstruction, which lasted from 1865-1877, the North will have a thriving economy where as the South's economy will be in shambles as a result of emancipation of the slaves. The end of slavery mainly affected southern agriculture and labor.
             Before the Civil War, two-thirds of the United States' exports were cotton and textile goods. The factories in the North would make textiles out of Southern cotton. A majority of Southern cotton was grown on plantations where slave labor was popularly used as a cheap way to pick and clean the cotton. Cotton was the primary cash crop of the south and the basis of their economy. Which is why the mere thought of emancipating the slaves was earth shattering to a southerner's ears because then there was no one to maintain the plantations.
             This, along with the extensive damages the south faced after the civil war were why the south's economy went down the drain after the Civil War. Slavery supplied the south with ample amount of free labor to take care of the plantations and keep the plantation economy booming. Slavery was the backbone to the southern economy and without it, it would fall apart and it did after the war. With the war officially ended in 1865, the slaves in the south were now free. Now on paper, slaves were free, but in reality not much had changed for the blacks. They were free but had no money, no property, no jobs, no education, no skills with the exception of ...