Place the following sources on posters around the room for students to participate in a Gallery Walk. Each source contains economic statistics or measurements related to the South’s position during and immediately following the Civil War.

• Cotton Exports Chart
• Fraction of Whites’ Incomes from Slavery
• Resources of the Union and the Confederacy
• Relative Wealth of Former Slave-Owning Families

Instruct students to walk around the room and answer the following three questions on each poster:

1. List 2-3 observations you can make based on this data.
2. What does this information tell you about the economic conditions in the South during the Civil War?
3. What questions remain for you about the economics of the South during this time period?

Then, divide students into small groups and give each small group just one of the posters. As a group, students should read through all the comments and prepare a short verbal presentation to the class summarizing the source’s main idea and any salient comments from the gallery walk. Take turns presenting the posters.