http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/southindefeat.htm Read the article on the website, and answer the following question: What are the fears and anxieties that Revenal and other Southerners have about the end of the war? Are these fears justified? Why or why not?

When analyzing historical sources in search of what they can tell us about a period in time, we must always start by considering how accurate and reliable that source is likely to be. These diary entries from Henry William Revenal, a plantation owner in South Carolina, are likely to be both reliable and accurate for several reasons. As a primary source, they offer a view of the situation from someone who was there; nothing has been filtered through a historian's bias. As a diary, too, we can assume that Revenal wrote down his thoughts on a daily basis, rather than long after the fact, meaning that his recollections are fresh. Furthermore, we can assume he did not expect anyone else to ever read the entries, so he would have no reason to be circumspect about his true feelings. As such, we can assume that these entries give a genuine insight into the fears Revenal—and, undoubtedly, other Southern plantation owners—harbored as the Civil War drew to a close.
First of all, Revenal has economic anxieties for several reasons. In the first place, Confederate notes are now "universally refused," with the result that Revenal is unable to spend his money and is forced to "begin life again in our financial affairs." The South has been economically devastated by the war, and, moreover, it must now face the prospect of moving forward without the use of slaves, who had been the backbone of its main industry, cotton.
Revenal also expresses concern that he and other Southerners are unable to even adequately plan a recovery from their defeat, because they have no idea what is really going on. Most of what they know, including the true circumstances about what is to happen with their slaves, is "mere rumor," brought to the Southerners "through the sieve of Yankee eyes." Yankee soldiers are also seen "strolling about the streets," and there is a note of anxiety in Revenal's statement that they "seem to feel right at home." Understandably, as a defeated state, the Confederacy would be made anxious by the military presence of Northern soldiers, unsure as they were to the soldiers' intentions. Meanwhile, even the Yankee soldiers seem not to know what is going on with regard to the slaves. They take no action one way or another toward the "idle Negroes" now to be found in town. The civil powers, Revenal says, are now unable to act on their own behalf; he seems to fear martial law becoming a reality in the South, with the views of the North imposed upon them.
Revenal is evidently afraid that the property of Southerners is not safe. The North's continuing military presence seems to be a contributing factor here: Revenal quickly inquires as to where he can take the Oath of Allegiance in order to "save property [and] have personal protection." Doing this is necessary for the South to continue to function as an organized community.
It is clear from the way Revenal writes about his slaves that he does feel a personal attachment to them. He is concerned about what emancipation will mean not only for his own economic prospects, but for his slaves, who have never known any other life. "Old Amelia and her two grandchildren," he says, he will continue to look after for as long as he is able, but with his other slaves, he must face a difficult choice. His slaves "all express a desire to remain with [Revenal]." Unfortunately, Revenal "cannot afford to keep so many, and they cannot afford to hire for what I could give them." There is a conundrum for both blacks and their former owners in that neither can afford to live under the new state of affairs if Revenal must pay each slave he keeps.
Revenal is concerned that the emancipation of the blacks will "produce a financial, political, and social revolution." This may be the case for slavemasters who now cannot afford to run their businesses, but it is also the case that the blacks themselves may suffer. Revenal prays that emancipation will be "a blessing and not a curse to the poor Negro."
Looking back upon the aftermath of the Civil War, it is clear that many of Revenal's fears were indeed justified. Many blacks did struggle with adapting to their new lives, and the South was indeed economically devastated by the loss of the plantations. Meanwhile, the government took land from many white plantation owners, seizing property as Revenal feared; at the same time, land that was given to the freed blacks—"five acres and a mule"—was reneged upon, forcing them into a difficult situation. In many cases, blacks were recruited again as poorly paid laborers, a circumstance in which they were barely better off than they were under slavery.
The Reconstruction policies of the North as imposed upon the South created uproar among many white Southerners. When it was felt that blacks were being privileged over them, whites rebelled. Blacks were allowed to stand for political office, but these rights were eventually withdrawn again. The sudden expectation upon the South to see blacks as equal to whites did indeed create a "financial, political, and social revolution" which ultimately ended in the Jim Crow laws. The blacks were free, but the provisions made for their freedom were poor. The South, which had once been wealthy, became impoverished, with many of the buildings destroyed in the war remaining as they had fallen for decades.
The economic effects of the Civil War on the South are still felt to this day, and blacks would have to struggle for a century for full political equality. The difficulties Revenal fears in these diary entries marked only the beginning of a very difficult period for the South.