Planter families were quickly decimated during the Civil War. Union blockades prevented southern plantations from exporting cotton, tobacco, indigo and other major crop they grew. Also, most of the Civil War was fought in the South, with armies often plundering planter homes for supplies, along with freeing the slaves that made up much of their wealth. At the end of the war, the southern gentry/aristocracy that planter families made up was gone.
