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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ladybranch, post: 140525, member: 44&quot;]Heartily agree with GG, &quot;shortage of income&quot; - disposable income, after the Civil War for decades. First there was the era of Reconstruction (1865-1877). Secondly there was the worldwide depression of the 1870s with the Panic of 1873. Thirdly there was cotton. Before the CW cotton was King, the largest US export. Cotton was the reason Great Britain was rooting for the south. Of course cotton would never have been King without slavery. After the CW with slavery abolish (thank goodness), cotton - the money crop of the south - dropped like a lead balloon. By the end of the Civil War, Great Britain had turned to other suppliers for cotton like India, Egypt and Brazil. Also the advent of the boll weevil (1890s to 1920s) devastated the cotton crop. The South&#039;s agriculture wasn&#039;t diversified. Probably the greatest help to Southern agriculture was the boll weevil for it forced the South to diversify. Today soybeans, rice, corn for grain, peanuts, etc... with cotton probably still the biggest crop.&nbsp; With all the above money was scarce in the South from the plantation owners, middle class shop owners to the tenant and share choppers with the blacks penniless.</p><p><br /></p><p>--- Susan[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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