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Challenges of Confederate Leadership: Davis, Class Divisions, and Economic Struggles

Jefferson Davis struggled to effectively communicate the war's meaning to everyday Southerners, facing obstruction from governors and being outshined by Lincoln's leadership. As the Confederate government became more centralized, it lost sight of its greatest asset, cotton, miscalculating its influence on foreign diplomacy. Economic turmoil, class divisions, and shortages led to resentment among poorer citizens, while Southern women took on new burdens. Ultimately, a lack of manpower forced the Confederacy to consider arming enslaved individuals, challenging the foundations of slavery itself.

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Challenges of Confederate Leadership: Davis, Class Divisions, and Economic Struggles

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  1. The Confederate Nation 14.4

  2. 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

  3. Government • Confederacy became far more centralized • Gov’t control RR • Gov’t builds factories • Failed to use greatest resource - cotton

  4. 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

  5. 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”

  6. Economic Problems • Shortages of essential items • Salt • Corn • Meat • Farms, plantations, businesses, RR ruined

  7. 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

  8. 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.”

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. 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.”

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