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.
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.
Hispanic Americans predominantly worked in the farming industry within California, but were only employed seasonally during harvests. Therefore, average wage was only $1,378, which meant they usually lived low quality rented accommodation. One of the main reasons for Chicanos poverty was farming unions had no legal protection consequently it was hard to fight against the injustice. However, influential individuals such as, César Chávez the leader of the Community Service Organisation, National Farm Workers Association and later the United Farmers Workers was key is bringing about a change of Hispanic Americans status. The turning point came when the newly formed United Farm Workers launched its first big campaign in 1965 taking strike action involving over 10,000 farm workers.
The effects of the Civil War created many problems in the south socially, economically, and politically. Before the war, life was overflowed with wealth, which was mostly due to the cotton industry. The Civil War affected many people’s lives and left everything in chaos and turmoil. Two brothers who anxiously volunteered to defend their strong beliefs suffered similar problems during this war. Twenty-four-year-old Henry and nineteen-year-old Levi lived with their parents, Thomas Jefferson and Jane Walker, and three younger siblings, The Walkers were Presbyterians who resided in Mecklenburg County North Carolina.
In the early 1800s, when plantation owners left almost all other crops in favour of the newly profitable cotton. To increase cotton production planters purchased more slaves from Africa and the West Indies before the slave trade was banned in 1808. Thousands of blacks were brought into the United States during these years to tend to cotton fields, the size of plantations increased from relatively small plots to huge farms with as many as several hundred slaves each. Because the entire Southern economy became dependent on cotton, it also became dependent on slavery. Although Northern factories certainly benefited indirectly from slavery, Northern social customs were not tied to slavery as Southern customs were.
Slaves did jobs like looking after animals, others were in the fields working on the crops that were being grown, some slaves worked in the mills working the machines, slaves did any other jobs their owners wanted them to do. There were several reasons for abolishing slavery which will be discussed in this essay, some were humanitarian, some were economic. Examples of different views on why slavery was abolished were for example – one English historian, in 1869 said ‘The crusade of England against slavery may be regarded as one of the most virtuous acts recorded in the history of the nations’. Another example from a West Indian man, writing in 1938 said ‘Those who see in the abolition of slavery the awakening conscience of mankind should spend a few minutes asking themselves why it is that man’s conscience, which has slept peacefully for so many centuries, should awake just at the time when men began to see the unprofitableness of slavery’. One factor why historians believe slavery was abolished was because of the actions of white, middle-class campaigners such as Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce.
Slavery in both places was about the economy, farms, and tariffs. All of these have something to do with slavery and the civil war. During the civil war , in the south everything was about the economy, farms, plantations, and of course slavery. The southern economy stood on cotton, denim, sugar and hemp. slave labor was used on plantations that harvested these important crops.
As mentioned by William Harper, “The cultivation of the great staple crop cannot be carried on without slaves.” (Harper, Memoir in Slavery, 1837) In a time of western expansion and the cotton boom, some slave traders were able to accumulate great wealth from the slave-trading business and sought opportunities to acquire higher social status and financial stability. A con of slavery was when slaves were driven mercilessly to plant, cultivate, and harvest the crops for market. A failed crop meant the planter could lose his initial investment in land and slaves and possibly suffer bankruptcy. A successful crop could earn such high returns that the slaves were often worked beyond human endurance. Plantation masters argued callously that it was cheaper to work the slaves to death and then buy new ones than it was to allow them to live long enough and under sufficiently healthy conditions that they could bear children to increase their numbers.
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 practice of slavery can be said to use race as a large factor in its enslavement of people. For instance, in every slave trade, there has been a large focus on the factor that most enslaved people came from various African nations. The people of Africa can be seen as hard workers because of their lifestyle and culture. Their agricultural way of living puts into light the experience that Africans have as laborers. It could be coincidental that all prospective slave traders flock towards Africa to fill their demand for laborers or that they believed they were superior enough to take those people and force them into a different life.