Text D   A Shattered Fairy Tale

Directions: Go through Text D quickly and finish the following multiple-choice questions.

1. When people speak of the antebellum South, they generally mean _____________.

A. the time when women wore hoop skirts

B. the South after the Civil War

C. the pre- Civil War South

D. the South during the Civil War

2. Who called for a complete destruction of what could be used by the Confederacy?

A. General Stonewall Jackson      B. General Grant

C. General Robert E. Lee          D. General William Sherman 

3. How many Southerners died in the Civil War? 

A. Over 500,000         B. Over 600,000

C. Almost 300,000     D.50,500

4. Why was slave labor so important to the Southern economy?

A. Southerners were not used to working.

B. Workers were needed for large-scale farming.

C. Workers were needed for the many factories.

D. Slave labor freed the upper class to work at their white collar jobs.

1.    What happens when a fairy tale has an unhappy ending? For some people, the antebellum（美国内战前的）or pre-Civil War South was an American fairy tale. There were handsome princes, ladies fair, and a noble code of honor. The pace of life was serene and genteel（显得彬彬有礼的）. But in this fairy tale, no one was destined to（注定） live happily ever after.

2.    Even before the Civil War, the South was not quite the place of enchantment （魅力）it might have seemed. The agricultural economy relied heavily on slave labor. Thousands of black slaves were forced to work on the large plantations. They certainly did not lead storybook lives. Neither, for that matter, did poor whites. The fabled Southern culture may have been real only to the wealthy upper class.

3.    In any case, nothing was the same for anyone after the war. By the time of Lee' s surrender at Appomattox, the South lay in ruin. Cities, farms, and homes were burned and ravaged by cannon fire. Railroads and bridges were destroyed. Business and industry were nearly wiped out. Almost 300,000 men were dead.

4.    In the midst of this shattered fairy tale, daily life followed a rocky path. Everything from food to fuel was in short supply, if it could be found at all. Families dug in burned and shell-studded fields for root crops or any kind of edible(可食用的) vegetation. Tents or ruined houses were shelter for many. Disease added to the huge death toll.

5.    The Deep South lay in desolation（废墟）. The rubble was a monument to General William T. Sherman's determined destruction of anything that could be used by the Confederacy. Rebuilding was a much lower priority than survival.

6.    In the border states of Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri, prowling bands from both armies plundered homes and towns in“foraging"(搜寻) raids(抢劫). Raiders took food, livestock, or whatever they could carry off. In some areas, these raids occurred regularly for weeks on end, even after the war was over.

7.    Shortly after the cease-fire, Northern relief agencies came with food and other basic supplies for displaced(流离失所的) slaves and poor whites. One way or another, most people made it through until the fields began to produce enough food to stave off(暂时避开) starvation. The immediate crisis passed.

8.    The federal government launched its rebuilding plans. Military governments and newly forming state agencies began to bring some order to the chaos. Life assumed a pattern that was not quite so desperate. But even for people not used to luxury, the war brought an existence totally different from what they had known.

9.    The once tranquil pace of the South was based on an agricultural lifestyle. With the loss of slave labor, large scale farming could no longer be sustained. Federal control weakened the power of state governments. This change struck deep at the heart of Southern life. The Confederacy had gone to war to slay this dragon-sized threat. But the monster had defeated the hero, the castle was spoiled, and enchantment was no more. 

10.    The South moved into her post-war identity. Patterns of new life emerged. Blacks were no longer slaves. Some entered labor contracts with white employers; some became sharecroppers. Many looked to urban areas for their future, and the cities began to grow.

11.    The stirrings(出现) of industrialization strengthened the economy. Relationships with Northern markets and investors were re-established. Slowly, railroads were recreated and goods moved to market. It became possible to do business and make a living. But the bitterness and destruction of ruined dreams shaped cultural landscapes. 

12.    Through institutionalized segregation, southern whites clung to their status as lords over the black man. Separation of blacks and whites became solidly established in everything from schools to public toilets. A distrust of Northerners and a deep, abiding(长久的) grief over the loss of the antebellum South fixed themselves like thorns in the hearts of the people. The fairy tale was dead.

Proper Names

Abraham Lincoln 亚伯拉罕·林肯 

Reconstruction  (美国内战)战后重建 

Ten-percent Plan 《百分之十计划》

the Amendment (宪法的)修正案

the Ku Klux Klan三K党

Notes:

1. The Freedmen’s Bureau: The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Land,

often referred to as the Freedmen 's Bureau, was established in the War Department on March 3,1865. The Freedmen's Bureau offered education, employment and legal aid to freed slaves. The Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, Border States, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory.

 

2. The KKK (Ku Klux Klan): According to the Klan, the blood drop represents the blood shed by Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for the White Aryan Race. The KKK originated as a secret society organized in the South after the American Civil War to reassert white supremacy through terrorism and intimidation. The organization formed by Nathan Bedford Forrest to keep blacks under control was cruel and used “fear” as a weapon.