A Shattered Fairy Tale: The South after the Civil War

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Name Date A Shattered Fairy Tale: The South after the Civil War By Toni Lee Robinson What happens when a Fairy tale has an unhappy ending? For some people, the antebellum or pre- Civil War South was an American Fairy tale. There were handsome princes, ladies fair, and a noble code of honor. The pace of life was serene and genteel. But in this Fairy tale, no one was destined to live happily ever after . Even before the Civil War, the South was not quite the place of enchantment it might have seemed. The agricultural economy relied heavily on slave labor. Nearly four million black slaves were forced to work on the large plantations. They certainly did not lead storybook lives. Neither, for that matter, did poor whites. The Fairy tale Southern culture may have been real only to a few members of the wealthy upper class.

Name Date A Shattered Fairy Tale: The South after the Civil War By Toni Lee Robinson What happens when a fairy tale has an unhappy ending? For some people,

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