Question

Which is the BEST description of the southern economy during Reconstruction?

A) The southern economy was stabilized because of trade relationships with Great Britain and France. B) The southern economy was still based on agriculture and cotton, but now depended on sharecropping rather than slave labor. C) The southern economy was transformed from being based on agriculture to being completely dependent on industry and manufacturing. D) The southern economy was completely restored by 1866 and was actually more productive and profitable than the pre- Civil War economy.

Answer 1

Of the choices offered, the BEST description of the southern economy during Reconstruction is that the economy was still based on agriculture and cotton, but now depended on sharecropping rather than slave labor. Sharecropping and tenant farming emerged to replace the labor force that was lost when slavery ended, and the South remained in a state of economic depression well into the twentieth century.

Answer 2

My answer would be (B) because after slavery was abolished farmers didn't have as much help that was needed to harvest all the crops on the large amounts of land so sharecroppers were needed to help harvest them all.

So B