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The Confederate Nation. 14.4. Leadership. Jefferson Davis was unable to communicate the meaning of the war effectively to ordinary men & women. Davis couldn’t control obstructionist Gov’s Davis inferior to Lincoln as wartime leader. Government. Confederacy became far more centralized
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Leadership • Jefferson Davis was unable to communicate the meaning of the war effectively to ordinary men & women. • Davis couldn’t control obstructionist Gov’s • Davis inferior to Lincoln as wartime leader
Government • Confederacy became far more centralized • Gov’t control RR • Gov’t builds factories • Failed to use greatest resource - cotton
King Cotton Diplomacy • Tried to stop production for food instead • Banned cotton exports to urge GB to get involved • England has more cotton than it needs (59,60) • England won’t intervene b/c needs Union wheat as much as cotton
The Inner Civil War • The draft encouraged class divisions among whites. • Wealthy could hire substitutes • 20-negro rule (benefits overseers & planter sons) • Yeomen see struggle for Independence as “a rich man’s war & a poor man’s fight”
Economic Problems • Shortages of essential items • Salt • Corn • Meat • Farms, plantations, businesses, RR ruined
Nonslaveholders Unfair Share of Burden • Gov’t borrowed heavily & printed a lot of money b/c planters don’t want to pay taxes. • Inflation results & hurts lower class the most • Officers seize farm goods to feed army & pay w/ worthless money • Yeomen farmers sink into poverty & debt
Food riots 1863 (Richmond VA) • 100,000 deserters by war’s end • “men can’t be expected to fight for the government that permits their wives & children to starve.”
Women & the Confederacy • Southern women had an even greater burden on them than in the North • Women forced to manage farms & plantations • “government girls” • Legendary self-sacrfice, but as deaths mount many believe war isn’t worth it • Home front morale declines & desertions increase
Black Soldiers for the Confederacy • A shortage of manpower led the CC in 1865 to authorize the arming of slaves. • War ended before black soldiers recruited. • Decision undermined slavery & proslavery argument
Howell Cobb GA Planter • “The day you make soldiers of them is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong.”