COMMENTAIRE DE TEXTE DE CIVILISATION La situation après guerre aux USA

This text is the evidence of Mary Platt (78), collected by B.R Comstock, worker for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of Miami, Flo. in December 1938. This New Deal agency provided jobs during the Great Depression and the WPA aimed at produce comprehensive guidebooks for every state.
Mrs Platt tells her childhood in Northern Florida (she was born in 1860) where her family had a farm and employed some slaves to take care of the cattle. She explains how the war changed the way of life and the consequences of the end of the war (1865) and of the repeal of slavery on the Southern society, on both black and white people.
So this text give us keys to examine the Confederacy mentality, considering first slavery as a common ground between Black and White. Then let us look at the abolition of slavery to finish with the gap it created between the two communities.

Before the Civil War, slavery was not much debated. There was like a consensus strengthened by the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case in 1857, slavery was an habit and racism like a “value”. Furthermore, masters as slaves accepted this state of situation, there was no big trouble and slaves movements were restricted by states Constitutions (Black Code) since the early 19th century. But at this time, the situation was still stable, “both the planters and their slaves had all the meat they wanted, such as beef, pork, poultry and wild game” (l.6/7), slaves worked hard, there were good crops, they could “enjoy” the fruits of their labour. Slaves were considered as private properties, they had no rights but the ones their masters gave them and they worth as much as cattle. They were treated the same way and had the same living conditions. In fact, farms were “worked by [a few] slaves” (l.10) and if they were human, they were only seen as workforce. Nevertheless, if slaves were not as family, in many small