Discuss the economic and political impacts of the Civil War (1861-1865) on today’s economy. The most direct economic consequence of the Civil War was the ending of chattel slavery in the South, a labor system that had prevailed for nearly 250 years. Southern agriculture, the region’s primary enterprise, was organized around forced labor. The supply of slaves in combination with the prof-itability of cotton determined the choice of technique. The availability of slave labor conditioned the market values of real estate, personal wealth, and specialized tools and equipment.
Southerners grew tobacco, sugar and particularly cotton. Having the South upholding the name of being the Cotton Kings, which produced 10% of the USA’s manufactured goods in the 1850s. in comparison to the North who were industrialising rapidly, generating a much larger output, twice as much. With this the North were growing through the process of being industrialised with growth of transportation in railways such as the development of steamboats which revolutionised travel on the great divers, Mississippi and its tributaries. Cities were growing around the advanced factories, this meant that slavery would not fit this type of economy, which is a clear difference as the South’s economy was based around slavery.
Furthermore, slave uprisings would also play a role in the shaping of the structure of slavery. With the development of the cash crops tobacco and cotton in the mid-1600’s, slavery rapidly blossomed into a convoluted system of trading between the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Due to these reasons, slavery flourished
The South were all for slavery: * Slaves would work on the cotton and tobacco plantations in the south, working the land. * It was their cornerstone for all their business and wealth in the Southern States. * Without slavery, they feared that they would lose all aspects of their income and in-turn lose the ‘power’ that they had. * The creation of the cotton gin increased the demand for slavery as more and more production of cotton was in demand. This in-turn upsetted the North.
This difference in opinions was one of the causes of the Civil War The main cause of the Civil War was greed by the south. The south needed the slaves as a steady work force due to an invention years before the war called the Cotton Gin. This invention enabled plantation to grow to huge sizes. In 1830, 750,000 bales of hay per year were produced. Around 1850, the production of hay bales jumped up to 2.85 million bales per year.
What made it most interesting was the fact that half the population was African-American who were enslaved. The wealthy treasured the goods that imported from European areas and valued their agriculture. Most southerners lived on farms in small towns along the coast. Economic The Northern economy was industry and was centered around technology and manufacturing. The North did not need slave labor to keep their economy running.
Colonists put laws and rules into play to create the law and political system we have today. Slaves were brought to this country forcefully, but have had equally if not more of the same impacts as colonists have. Slaves economically molded this country. They did all of the work while their owners took the credit. Most states, especially southern states, have slave foundations, meaning slaves built that state.
Slavery built the U.S.’s economy. As we’ve learned through the readings and all the films and documentaries watched in this class, two of the largest exports out of the U.S. (the South, to be more specific) were cotton and tobacco, which were picked by the slaves. As the demands for cotton and tobacco increased, so did the number of slaves, which unfortunately led to (White Americans) believing to be superior and led to hate and discriminating against a group of people based on their skin color. This led the Civil Rights Movement in 1964, which changed history in America, with some important events that I’ve learned from taking this class. Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion, (also known as the Southampton Insurrection), which was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton county in Virginia in August 1831.
The market for slaves itself was large, slaves could be brought, sold, and even rented out. Not only was the market for slaves large, they stimulated other parts of Ancient Rome’s economy. Slaves were used on farms, on public state projects, as household servants, as prostitutes, and even as gladiators, Slavery was view as tradition so embedded into daily life, so that Romans didn’t want to abolish the act. Just as Ancient Rome, slavery was embedded into the Ante-bellum South. The United States owes its early prosperity to slavery, because slavery really stimulated and developed the American agriculture.
slave labor was used on plantations that harvested these important crops. The British and French trading houses brought these crops for manufacturing into a finished products which were sold around the world. During the time of civil war, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Seven southern states had formed the Confederate States of America. After the civil war began 4 more states followed Lincoln antislavery views were well established.