VS. 8c

Interactive Notes

Reconstruction

During the Civil War…Many battles were fought in Virginia that destroyed plantations, bridges, railroads, and crops.

Agriculture = Virginia’s economyPlantations & farms destroyed =

Virginia’s economy was ruined

Great numbers of freed African Americans were now on their own and needed housing, education, clothing, food, and jobs.

The Freedmen’s Bureau was created.

It was a government agency.It helped get African Americans and poor white southerners food, housing, medical care, education, and jobs.

Freedmen’s Bureau

A person could rent land (live there and work on it) by giving the owner a share of the crops when they were harvested.

Sharecropping

Virginia’s economy began to grow, or develop in many areas after the Civil War. These changes in transportation, cities, industry and technology helped to improve the economy of Virginia.

Virginia’s Economic Development after the Civil War

Transportation

Transportation

phonograph

Railroads were one reason cities, businesses, industry, and agriculture expanded. Railroad centers attracted factories and factories attracted people, businesses, and jobs. Whereas getting to waterways had been essential to the transporting of products, railroads were now becoming more accessible. Railroads also supported economic expansion as they crisscrossed Virginia and the nation.

With more people, businesses, and factories moving to towns and cities, small towns grew into cities and the need for more and better roads increased.

Other regions of Virginia also grew after the war. Coal deposits were discovered in Tazewell County. This helped to stimulate the growth of the mining industry. The discovery of coal also affected the economy of other parts of the state. Railroads carried the coal east to the growing seaports of the Coastal Plain region where it was shipped to the rest of the world.

Tazewell County

Draw a picture to show your understanding of

Coal Deposits and Railroads

Tobacco farming and tobacco products became an important industry in Virginia. With the help of the railroads, tobacco once again became a cash crop that could be sold and shipped in large amounts. Because there was a greater supply of tobacco, industries that produced tobacco products, such as pipe tobacco and cigarettes grew as well.