Final answer:
Post-Civil War Southern crop production suffered due to war destruction and economic challenges, leading to prolonged poverty and a slow recovery effort marked by sharecropping and a 'New South' vision.
Step-by-step explanation:
After the Civil War, the Southern states faced a severe decline in their crop production, leading to a prolonged period of economic hardship. The Reconstruction era attempted to integrate the Confederate states back into the Union, but its uneven execution left many Southern states mired in poverty. The South’s pre-war economy was based heavily on agriculture, particularly cotton, which was two-thirds of the world's supply, and tobacco. With the advent of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, cotton became the region's dominant commercial crop. However, the Civil War disrupted this agrarian economy. Farms were devastated, farmers had to sell their crops at low prices due to falling cotton prices or shift to sharecropping, and widespread destruction led to a scarcity of supplies and cash.
Cities experienced overcrowding and disease, while farmers who prioritized cash crops like cotton and tobacco over food faced starvation when those crops could not be sold for profit. Even after the war, the South struggled to recover. Post-war efforts focused on creating a New South with a more diversified economy and less reliance on cash crops, yet many farmers remained 'land poor.' They could not afford to purchase new supplies or pay off debts, exacerbating the slow recovery of southern crop production.