How Did The Civil War Affect The Economy

One of the first promising step that the government took towards making the transition from slavery to freedom easier for the freedmen was by creating the Freedmen’s Bureau. The original purpose of the bureau was to provide things like protection, advice, and economic, social, and educational services (Goldfield, The American Journey, vol. 2, 356). Because of the bureau the literacy rate among black southerners was able to rise from 10 percent to 30 percent within a decade fallowing the end of the Civil War (Goldfield, 357). At first this seemed to make the transition easier, however when the bureau fell apart in 1872 the former slaves in the south started to have a harder time receiving the proper education that they deserved. When the 15th

There was a disastrous effect on the South’s economy after the Civil War. First, the war caused billions of dollars of damage, most of it in the South. The devastation had left South’s economy in a state of collapse. Roughly two-thirds of the transportation system lay in ruins. Many bridges were destroyed and miles of railroad twisted and rendered useless.

Before the Civil War began, the United States had two distinct economies. Although farming was a staple throughout the United States, from an economic standpoint the Northern and Southern farmers were fundamentally diverse from each other. Unfree labor and staple crops were an essential part of Southern life. While their counterparts to the North comprised of an economy that contained finance, a wide range of industries, and commerce; wage earners and small business owners. The Civil War drastically changed this way of life for both the North and South. The South after the war was left in decimated, while the Northern economy boomed. Southern farmers between 1859-1860 were harvesting a record number of cotton crops. Cotton was America’s most

text. The Civil War was a decisive victory for the antislavery movement, but not one expected the economic collapse, the millions of dollars worth of destroyed property, or the thousands of torn and broken families that the war caused. With the conclusion of the war, the South could finally see how much damage the war had done to the South in it’s economy and cities. With the ongoing process of war, the South went through huge inflation due to the fact that the government was printing out so much paper money.

It provided food, clothing and often shelter to millions of starving freedmen and their families immediately after the war. It made strenuous efforts to reunite black families that had been separated before and after the war. Because most Southern white doctors refused to treat African Americans, the Bureau established hospitals and dispensaries (Freedmen’s Bureau, Social Welfare History Project). But its greatest achievement was in education. During Reconstruction, the bureau set up hundreds of schools across the South. The bureau had considerable help from Northern missionary societies and abolitionist groups, like the Quakers, who for years after the war sent down white teachers. But the contribution of African Americans themselves was crucial, from African American groups in the north who sent down funds and textbooks. to literate black Southerners who taught in the Freedmen’s schools (Butchart, Freedmen’s Education during Reconstruction). The demand for education was insatiable: illiterate former slaves wanted education not just for their children, they wanted to learn to read and write themselves. All over the South, the Bureau encouraged night classes and Sabbath schools for working adults.

The economy in the United States was affected the most during the period of 1861-1865 due to the start of the Civil War. Before the war, there was a very restricted government and little to no taxes were given due to president Jefferson's belief that taxes were a source of oppression. The Civil war put the United States at great debt of almost $2.7 billion. This caused congress to form the first income taxation which was beneficial to those who were not as fortunate, but as the war grew increasingly costly, the congress increased tax rates. Although the civil war abolished slavery, the war had caused almost 600,000 deaths and wounded almost 500,000.

One of the biggest reasons the south seceded from the Union was because they believed that the north would interfere with their property rights. They thought that the north would reduce their wealth from taking land from them, as well as taking their slaves. The south believed that they would receive help from England and France, due to the need for cotton. As the Civil War began, you can clearly see the strengths and weaknesses of each economy. The North’s industrialized economy had grown incredibly to fight the south, while the South’s economy began to dip due to lack of industry and leaning so heavily on slave labor and agriculture.

The economies of the North and South were vastly different leading up to the Civil War. Money was equivalent to power in both regions. For the North, the economy was based on industry as they were more modern and self-aware. They realized that industrialization was progress and it could help rid the country of slave labor as it was wrong. The North’s population had a class system but citizens could move within the system, provided they made the money that would allow them to move up in class. The class system was not as rigid as it was in the South. By comparison, the South wanted to hold on to its economic policy. In doing so, the practice of slavery kept the social order firmly in place. The economic factors, social issues and a growing

The Effect of The American Civil War on The Economy (North and South) Before 1800, the American economy was mostly agricultural, with many families owning their own farm and working and living on it, save for some people owning small shops, or craftsmen like writers or painters, though these people would likely still have a farm of some sort at their home. This all started changing rapidly after 1800, with the United States, and by extension, the world, going through an industrial revolution. This brought wealth largely to the North, who saw an influx of refugees and locals looking to work in the growing mills. The South, contrastingly remained largely agricultural, becoming one of the worlds largest producers of cotton. This was influenced in part by how fertile the soil was in the South, and greatly by the fact that slavery was still legal and extremely commonplace.

Economically, the Civil War was not a contest between equals. The South had no factories to produce guns or ammunition, and its railroads were small and not interconnected, meaning that it was hard for the South to move food, weapons and men quickly and over long distances. In addition, though agriculture thrived in the South, planters focused on cash crops like tobacco and cotton and did not produce enough food to feed the southern population. The North, on the other hand, had enough food and enough factories to make weapons for all of its soldiers. It also had an extensive rail network that could transport men and weapons rapidly and cheaply. At first, this superiority of the North didn't seem to make much of a difference; like many wars

How did the war impact the economy in the North and the economy in the South?

American Civil War Alec Rey February 14, 2018 The American Civil War No war in American history has devastated our entire economy, threatened our national existence and taken more human lives than the American Civil War. Around 620,000 people lost their lives due to combat, diseases, starvation, and accidents. Certainly the system of slavery was a shame, but it was an economic precondition for the prosperity of the South. Even though human chattel slavery was a defining problem, the central issue of the war was federal authority (power) on the states.

In the period after the civil war there were many consequences in the economy in such categories as agriculture, labor, industrialization, and transportation. Many of these economic categories took a hit because many suppliers, work areas, and and employees were hurt or destroyed during the war. It took many years after the end of the Civil War for the agricultural industry, labor industry, industrial industry, and transportation industry to regain their footing in the economic world. Even then some of the industries would forever be changed by the things that the great Civil War caused in our country.

Many things hurt the bureau’s work. 2 White Southerners were very hostile to the Northern bureau members, and even more so to the freed slaves. Terror organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan or KKK targeted both blacks and whites and intimidated those trying to help them. The bureau lacked the necessary funds and personnel to carry out its programs, and the lenient policies of President

The South heavily relied on slavery to keep their economy stable, although not their only source of money, but by abolishing slavery and making it illegal it would damage their economy quite badly. And so this caused a lot of tension between the North and South because they were very different economically. The South is much more agricultural, and is reliant upon exports as well. The North on the other hand is in complete contrast to the South. The North industrialised very fast and many people of poor background and some African-American succeeded and made a lot of money. It isn't very clear that if they had lived in the South if they could have achieved this much success, but those in the North faced a lot less discrimination compared to the South. "Because the economics of the dynamic industrializing North and the static agrarian South were incompatible, the two societies were on a collision course that led inexorably to war" (http://civilwartalk.com/threads/historians-evolving-views-of-civil-war-causality.21223/) Many historians agree that this was not a major cause. According to economic historian Lee A. Craig, "In fact, numerous studies by economic historians over the past several decades reveal that economic conflict was not an inherent condition of North-South