Answer:
The economic lives of planters, former slaves, and nonslaveholding whites, were transformed after the Civil War. ... During Reconstruction, many small white farmers, thrown into poverty by the war, entered into cotton production, a major change from prewar days when they concentrated on growing food for their own families.
Step-by-step explanation:
The economic lives of planters, former slaves, and nonslaveholding whites, were transformed after the Civil War. ... During Reconstruction, many small white farmers, thrown into poverty by the war, entered into cotton production, a major change from prewar days when they concentrated on growing food for their own families.The Civil War benefited the Northern economy, but it left the Southern economy in absolutely terrible condition. The South, with its agricultural economy, lost its ability to exploit slave labor for greater profits, and also most battles occurred in Southern territory, leaving huge spans of agricultural land destroyed.