I like reading historical novels. In such, plot and such take precedence over history and accuracy.
In one novel set in the Civil Ware, the author puts words in the mouth of John WIles Booth. Allegedly Booth complained that Lincoln had destroyed Southern institutions.
What institutions, other than slavery, cried I, as I let from my relaxed position. I could not imagine institutions other than slavery.
So, I asked a most scholarly and thoughtful friend of mine to fill in the blanks. I did so while we lunched. No, it was not Ms. Otis.
The friend replied, though not in song, that the conflict had brought an end to the exclusive agrarian nature of southern culture and economy. Land ownership ceased to serve as the cheif and only element b y which a person secured their status in society. That owenership also served as the basis for an aristoracy which had also ceased.
The land needed folk to work it. If slaves did not do that work, who would? Without that work, who would wrest the agricultural wealth from the land?
In the new South, moeny and invesments either took the place of land or stood along side of land as sources of wealth. And, with wealth came social status.
All through reconstruction the North controled the flow of money. Land redistribution, or attempts at it, broke up the holdings of the old southern familys.
As late as 1935, a repost ordered by FDR showed that more that sevety five percent ( 75% ) of financial matters and industrial wealth belonged to northern owners.
Before the War, folk generally identified themselves as coming from V ermont or Virginia. After, folk called themselves Americans. Before, the phrase was These United States. But, after folk said as today The Unived Sates.
