Thomas Clemson
Introduction
In the post-Civil War days of 1865, Thomas Clemson looked upon a South that lay in economic ruin, once remarking that "this country is in wretched condition, no money and nothing to sell. Everyone is ruined, and those that can are leaving."
What did Clemson see when he looked out on what had been one of the leading agricultural economies of the South, if not the U.S. as a whole? The students of Professor Curtis Simon’s Monitoring the Economy class examined this question during the Spring 2006 semester. The resulting work answered a number of questions.
- What did South Carolina's economy look like prior to the Civil War?
- How did the Civil War impact South Carolina's economy?
- How, other than the reduction in wealth among slave owners, did the end of slavery impact South Carolina's economy?
- Why did South Carolina's manufacturing sector lag behind that of other states after the Civil War?
- What roles did these forces play in explaining South Carolina's relatively low per capita income after the Civil War?
- Have these historical factors played any role in understanding South Carolina's economy today?
Click on the links on the right hand side to examine our answers to these questions.