Many economic differences between the North and South are contributing factors to the Civil War, but what are the effects of the Civil War on the economy in the South? The Civil War transformed the southern economy in many ways. Before 1861, the South provided a great majority of the federal income through exports to England. By 1880, the south was broken by the war. Many proud plantations were devastated and billions of economic value in slaves had been wiped away by emancipation measures. The Southern economy was built on the labor of African American slaves. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the cotton industry became the lucrative field for the south. slave labor cut costs as it produced cotton for sale to other regions and exports to England. In exchange, southerner’s would purchase manufactured goods from the north. The southern cotton industry served as an engine of growth for the entire nation’s economy in the antebellum years. Another economic issue that divided the nation was tariffs. The south had intentions of keeping tariffs low, since they had an import- oriented economy, but the north wanted high tariffs.
While it could produce sufficient food to support itself, thanks to an agriculturally based economy, but it lacked means of transporting it to soldiers and civilians in areas further away from the plantations in which it was grown on. Slave labor was a necessity to southerners because they believed that a white man should not do the back breaking labor required to produce cotton, tobacco, rice and indigo. Also slaves were cheap labor and with approximately 3 million slaves they were of convenient numbers to cut the time in which it would take to tend to the fields. The south was resourceful: they had seven out of the eight military colleges in the country; they established armories and foundries in several states; they built huge gunpowder mills and melted down thousands of church and plantation bells for bronze to build cannons. Their greatest strength was fighting on home turf. They could easily harass northern invaders since they were familiar with the landscape. Also the South would fight to maintain their way of life, whereas, the north would fight to maintain a union. The economy of the south decreased greatly during the war due to the ban of slaves and the trade blacked by the north.
The Term Paper on The South During The Civil War
The South during the Civil War South during the Civil War is a topic that has attracted a tremendous amount of historians. A lot of research has been done on this subject, and within the conceptual framework of this report we will elaborate on South during the Civil War. Certainly, one of the major points to be discussed here would be the differences between the North and the South, since because ...
Both sides were struggling to find revenue sources to pay for the war. Southerner’s as well as Northerner’s were racist but it was mostly in the south. Behavior of the white population towards blacks has been motivated for most of its history by fear. The southern people did feel superior to atleast the colored population because of prejudice feelings and the thought and acceptance that they could “own” a colored person. Obviously the moral and ethical standards have changed a lot since then even though still today the feeling of superiority is expressed by many people. Southern people have always had a bit of an arrogant attitude towards the rest of the world. They do believe they are better then everyone else. Despite the economic conditions of the period they still continued to “rule” over the rest of the nation in their own minds. The deteriorating conditions did bring the off of their high horse slightly but mostly because they were losing everything. The war effort was supported by large-scale production of export crops, primarily cotton and tobacco shipped mainly to England, raised by slaves. Slaves were a key component in the southern wealth, comprising the second most valuable form of property in the region, after real estate.
The Essay on Another Civil War South North Southern
Socioeconomic reasons for the causes and outcome of the Civil War Analyzing the causes and the eventual outcome of the American Civil War can be a difficult task when you look at all the issues at once. The fields of the political, economic and sociological differences between the Union and the Confederacy are were we find the bulk of the answers as why the two regions of the United States ...
The north disrupted the southern economy by attempting to block trade routes for the south since they relied heavily on trade to stabilize their economy. However, the north and south did depend on each other for prosperity. The north had a textile and more of a manufacturing based economy, where the south’s economic wealth was based on agriculture. They traded with each other to be successful however during the war most trade was cut off. At the end of the war the conditions in the south were extremely poor. They spent all their money on fighting the north and they were also suffering from hyper inflation for printing and using worthless currency as they needed it. The South had been broken by the war. Lands were devastated. Proud plantations were now mere wrecks. Billions of economic value in slaves had been wiped away by emancipation measures without that compensation which Lincoln himself had admitted to be equitable. Difficult social problems presented themselves in the sudden elevation of a servile race to the status of free laborers and enfranchised citizens. Accumulated capital had disappeared. Banks were shattered; factories were dismantled; the structure of business intercourse had crumbled. In Atlanta, Columbia, Mobile, Richmond, and many other places great havoc had been wrought by fire.
The economic system in which we have today grew from the Post-Civil War economy. Historians view this point in our past as a major turning point in American Economic History. At the bottom of the Civil War or as some Historians have labeled it “The Second American Revolution,” it was merely a social war that reformed our Government into what it is today. The war brought about vast changes in the course of our industrial development. As you can see, the southern economy experienced many changes between 1850 and 1880. The antebellum south was a prosperous agricultural society that depended strictly on slave labor and trade to function. Post-War the south had to completely rebuild everything it had established in the century prior to the war. Plantations were completely destroyed and Major cities were burned as a final act of the North. Slavery was abolished so the Plantation owners had to find new methods of farming. In my opinion the effects of the Civil War on the south has had a Major impact on making the United States what we are today, or at least what we were before the Obama Administration. I believe the Civil War was vital for our country to realize how wrong we had been in the beginning.
The Term Paper on Civil War South Men Union
... compared to the North's economy that flourishes under wartime conditions. War invigorated the northern economy by stimulating a leading form of northern economic activity, namely ... the South wasn't able to trade their cotton for war material, and because of this they were always behind the North in production.The war also ...
