ABSTRACT
The end of the Civil War brought the end of slavery and therefore a new economic and social system to the southern states. Millions of dollars invested in slaves disappeared, land claims were thrown into chaos by the war, and cities and regional infrastructure were devastated. Many white southerners, while they bemoaned the end of slavery and the old ways, saw the end of slavery as an opportunity to embark on a new departure, as the late historian C. Vann Woodward phrased it. Pro-growth businessmen and their champions, such as James D.B. DeBow, editor of an influential financial magazine, pushed the defeated South to diversify its economy and invest in banks, railroads, and industries. As we have seen, before the Civil War a new southern middle class had emerged to promote an agenda of economic and cultural modernization. These southerners made considerable progress in the 1850s in encouraging southern state legislatures to spend heavily on new railroads and other internal improvements. With the war over, these same middle-class southerners renewed their calls for a new path. The region should no longer depend on cotton but should instead devote equal energy to other crops; railroads, banks, and cities needed to be reconstructed; public school systems should be developed to educate southern children; southern entrepreneurs should invest in textile mills, lumber production, and other industries. Just as they had before the war, the southern middle class promoted enterprise, thrift, energy, and work.
