How did the Civil War have an economic impact on the South?

Hello Annabel! sooo the economic impact on the south was inflicted largely due to the Union Naval blockade. The inability to sell Cotton to Europe decimate the southern farmers ability to sell their goods.

The Civil War had a devastating economic impact on the South, leaving long-lasting consequences. Much of the region's infrastructure, including railroads, factories, and farms, was destroyed, particularly during Union military campaigns like General Sherman's "March to the Sea," which crippled the South’s ability to rebuild quickly. The collapse of the slave-based economy, following the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, was another major blow, as plantations could no longer rely on enslaved labor, leading to a significant reduction in agricultural output. While sharecropping emerged as a new labour system, it often trapped both formerly enslaved people and poor whites in cycles of debt and poverty. Additionally, the destruction of farmland and the disruption of cotton production, the South's main cash crop, further weakened the economy, leaving the region impoverished and dependent on Northern capital and industrial goods in the years following the war.