The End of the “Second Slavery” in the Confederate South and the Great Brigandage in Southern Italy

Some Comparative Suggestions

Abstract

Between 1861 and 1865, the newly formed Confederate nation and the
Kingdom of Italy faced comparable crises of legitimacy, as the South
of the former United States and southern Italy underwent the horrific
ordeals of the American Civil War and of Italy’s “Great Brigandage”, also
in itself a civil war. Even though on different scales and in different ways,
the two civil wars affected relationships between the agrarian elites and
their slave and peasant workers, leading to the shattering of the “second
slavery” in the Confederate South and to a deep crisis in the landowning
socio-economic system of southern Italy. Whereas the Confederate nation
did not survive the crisis of legitimacy and collapsed under combined
military pressure from the Union and internal opposition, the Kingdom
of Italy survived the crisis of legitimacy at the cost of strengthening the
government’s authoritarian character and of the indiscriminate use of
military force.