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How Did The Civil War Affect The Economy

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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. It was a confrontation of two economic and political ideologies. The economy for the north was more industrialized while the south relied on farming and agriculture, which used slave labor, hence …show more content…

The differing economic interests of the North and South pushed them into political conflict along a wide front. The southern economy produced an abundance of food to feed its citizens and its draft animals. Agriculture using slave labor was sustainable, no loans from banks were needed and according to Engerman and Fogel, it was 35% more efficient than the free agriculture. Slavery defined the south, it was a very complex and varied society. One of the South’s persistent complaints was that northern states would not vigorously cooperate in the return of fugitive slaves and also that the free-states allowed antislavery organizations to flourish. In April 1860, the Democratic convention was held in Charleston, South Carolina. The northern Democrats supported Douglas for President, but the southern Democrats withheld support for him because they demanded a federal territorial slave code. The Douglas supporters pointed out that doing that would drive the northern Democrats into the Republican Party. The southern delegates walked out of the convention and nominated their own candidate, John C. Breckinridge of …show more content…

On Election Day, the results did not endorse extremism of either sort. Lincoln won a clear Electoral College majority over his combined opponents, carrying every free-state except New Jersey where Douglass won. When the South Carolina legislature saw the election outcome, it declared secession from the Union. In the next few weeks, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana vetoed secession. In early February of 1861, delegates of the six seceded states met in Alabama to organize a new confederacy, adopting a frame of government for the Confederate States of America, choosing Jefferson Davis as president. The confederate constitution declared slavery everywhere protected by law and forbade protective tariffs. At this point the two different regions had been separated and the only way to unite them was by a war. Lincoln and his party members disagreed on the public policy for slavery. Lincoln did not want slavery to spread anywhere else in the Union. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri could secede from the Union if nothing was done. Designed to achieve political goals, the Emancipation Proclamation meant to secure Lincoln’s reelection in 1864 and keep those key states in the

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