How Did The Civil War Change Georgia's Economy

As a result of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Georgia society changed drastically. Georgia’s society became more racially integrated, the economy was in ruins, white society was demolished, and race relations shifted minimally. The most important societal shift is the resulting race integration. The white and African American races were far more integrated after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Prior to Reconstruction, African Americans were enslaved by Southern landowners. However, after the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed, allowing former slaves and people of African American descent to receive all of the privileges of being a United States citizen. For instance, when Georgia was composing its new state constitution during Reconstruction, 37 out of 169 delegates were of African American descent. From this, one can …show more content…
During the Civil War, the South had depleted a great deal of its resources, and Georgia, “the heart of the Confederacy,” had been demolished in Sherman’s March to the Sea. During Sherman’s march, railroads, industry, crops, the city of Atlanta, and anything else that came along the Union troops’ path was destroyed. In addition, Confederate currency was worth very little, and almost everyone in the former Confederacy had transferred to this money. In order for people to make profits, they had to make investments, something that they were unable to do, for the value of their money was minimal. Therefore, after the war, the Southern states had to rebuild homes, industry, transportation, and agriculture, but they had no money to do so. Reconstruction assisted in rebuilding infrastructure, however, it was mainly directed at integrating the African American population of the South into society. For this reason, after both the Civil War and Reconstruction, the South had a weak economy, something that would cripple the region for decades to