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.