Post-war Reconstruction made a beginning at addressing the conditions but very quickly became a vicious system meant to subjugate the southern Black populations, even if it could not restore the plantation lifestyle.

My original thought was if the South economy had been restored, say with an influx of Northern immigrants, workers and office seekers, would the South today be very different? As it stands, the South, by and large, is poor with a high rate of illiteracy, unemployment and crime.