1. Impact of
Reconstruction
on SC
Social Class
8.5-2—Describe the
economic impact of
Reconstruction on
South Carolinians in
each of the various
social classes.

2. SC, In-A-Rut
• Southern economy still
depended on agriculture &
cotton (now w/o slave
labor)
• South Carolina (and most
other southern states)
remained in an economic
depression well into the
20th century
• Northern Carpetbaggers
took advantage of the
“cheap” south

3. Southern Plantation Owners
• 13th amendment
resulted in the loss of
labor force & most of
their wealth
• Now forced to do the
normal household &
farm duties themselves
or pay wages to their
workers
• All they had of value
now was their land

4. Sharecropping System
• Many plantation owners entered into
sharecropping agreements with freedmen and
poor whites
• Reestablished their position as master
• Planter elites used Black Codes to try and hang-
on to slave-like conditions & control over the
government, Congressional Reconstruction
brought a temporary end to their political control
in SC
• Led to the elite & middle-class to engage in
violence and intimidation against African
Americans throughout Reconstruction

5. Small Farmers
• directly affected financially
by newly freed slaves
• Competed against African
American sharecroppers
when they marketed their
crops
• Their sense of social
superiority to slaves
turned into a feeling of
threat by their equal status

6. The Freedmen
• Searched for lost family
• Explored the country
• Most soon returned to
the plantations they
knew best
• Many who could not secure their own land to
farm entered into sharecropping agreements
• Landowner supplied the seed, tools, & land/
the sharecropper provided the labor
• Both then shared the crop that was
produced…

7. A Sharecropper’s Contract
“The sale of every cropper’s part of the cotton to
be made by when and where I choose to sell, and
after deducting all they owe me and all sums
that I may be responsible for on their
accounts, to pay them their half of the net
proceeds. Work of every description, particularly
the work on fences and ditches, to be done to my
satisfaction, and must be done over until I am
satisfied that it is done as it should be.”
Source: Grimes Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection

8. The “Crop Circle” of Debt
• Sharecroppers remained economically
dependent on the landowner
• Bad crop years resulted in sharecroppers
taking out loans in the form of liens against
future harvests in order to buy supplies
• This kept most sharecroppers in a cycle of
debt with landowners & lien holders

9. The “Crop Circle” of Debt

10. Impact on Women
• Impact depended on their
husband’s social class after the
war
• Elite had to negotiated
terms with former slaves to
continue working as a
household employee or do
the work themselves
• Deaths or war related
disabilities of their
husbands often forced
women into non-traditional
roles
• “Carpetbaggers” &
“scalawags” pushed for
some women’s
rights, resulting in the 1868
law that allowed women to
own land in their own name
even after marriage

11. “Carpetbaggers”
come to SC
•Northern immigrants
•Came as
teachers, missionaries, or
entrepreneurs
•Some came as Union
soldiers & stayed
•Not accepted by most of
white SC society
•Some found political &
economic opportunities in
SC