Book excerpt: This is the first book to assess the contribution of Southern agriculture to the Confederate war effort, to describe the damage that agriculture sustained during the war, to analyze the transition from slavery to free labor after the war, and to recount the slow and painful process of rebuilding Southern agriculture by 1880. Synthesizing primary and secondary historical sources, Southern Agriculture During the Civil War Era, 1860-1880 fills a crucial gap in our knowledge about the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction period.