A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition]

by Eric Foner

Thus the war permanently redrew the economic and political map of the white South. Military devastation and the Confederacy’s economic policies plunged much of the upcountry into poverty, thereby threatening the yeomanry’s economic independence and opening the door to the postwar spread of cotton cultivation and tenancy. The war ended the upcountry’s isolation, weakened its localism, and awakened its political sell-consciousness.