During reconstruction, southern cities: a. experienced major population losses as blacks trekked north in the great migration. b. were as poverty-stricken as rural southern areas. c. enjoyed newfound prosperity as merchants traded more frequently with the north. d. benefited from the building of a transcontinental railroad from washington, d. c., to los angeles. e. benefited as rice and tobacco production markedly grew.

c. enjoyed newfound prosperity as merchants traded more frequently with the North.

Explanation:

For the South, Reconstruction was a profound change, as nearly four million African American slaves became free citizens. Furthermore, the South was invaded by Northern armies, and the southern economy that had been devastated had to be rebuilt.  

Southern merchants found prosperity trading with the North, and the North even loaned money to finance the south´s railroad construction.  

whose power in the senate is equal to the power of the speaker of the house?