Confederate expectations ? it is my opinion that they expected to continue as always and have resented that they couldn't ever since.
the south could have survived as an agrarian society and in fact did so and continue to do so in large part. the ex-confederacy's problems with achieving this were social protocols and greed.
in the south manual menial labor was not considered appropriate employment for white people. also cotton was still "King" for most of the south. however when push came to shove, poor whites found themselves side by side with blacks in the cotton fields. the south had already lost it's monopoly on cotton, as has been mentioned, but continued to grow it until it was virtually wiped out by the boll weevil. it was only then that they (southerners) realized that diversification would save them. sharecropping and tenet farming were already well established for labor and with the greed of cotton reduced and the introduction of diversification into other , mostly food crops, and a mix of industrialization ( which created jobs more appropriate for whites) the south plodded on into the modern era. i would remark also that i believe that owning and farming your own land with hired labor is still preferable to blue collar and many white collar jobs. much of the old south plantation lands are tree farms now with the same families in control.
before i catch heck let me say that i do not mean to imply that all southerners are lazy but they are motivated differently. i know many land owners that harvested their forests and planted crops like peach orchards, hay fields, melon patches, and peanut farms. i know one guy who set up his own timber mill and built his elaborate house with his own timber. southerners can be highly motivated, industrious, and resourceful, but not if it's is below their stature . this is not a unique trait to southerners but it was a major factor in the ACW and reconstruction.