As the Civil War was about to begin, the American Economy was changing from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. Since the early 1800’s, the United States was largely an agricultural economy, due to the cotton industry. By the late 1810’s, cotton had become the greatest export the United States had. One reason for that is Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin had increased cotton production to a possible 50 pounds of cotton per day per machine. In the 1840’s, the United States began to produce approximately two-thirds of the world’s cotton. Cotton was largely grown in the south because of the better climate and soil conditions for large plantations. However, the North’s climate was much better suited for an …show more content…
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. One of the biggest advantages the North had was the railroad system. The North had a lot more railroad on its side, which could move anything from soldiers to supplies to weapons. The South’s economy had gone downhill due to blockades on southern exports. No foreign country would ever have loaned money to the south because nobody had any idea if the south would make it through the war. At the end of the war, the southern economy was completely destroyed after making so many economical mistakes and having so much of their property destroyed. The northern economy, however, was growing drastically due to the industrial
After the invention of the cotton gin, the production of unprocessed cotton doubled each decade after 1800. Other inventions of the Industrial Revolution were the machines to spin and weave cotton and the steamboat to transport it. America was growing three quarters of the world's supply of cotton in the mid-century. Most of it was shipped to England or New England where it was made into cloth. During this time, tobacco’s value decreased, rice exports stayed at the same price, and sugar began to flourish, but only
The North was much comfortable society, in control of 70% of the countries wealth. The Confederates were all too willing to sell what little raw resources they controlled to the North for any amount of profit. This would only buy the South time, but not the war. Due to the Northern naval blockades, tariffs and printing paper money with no specie to back it up causing the Southern dollar to plummet and made overseas countries reluctant to loan money to a failing economy. This made it to expensive for the South to import goods from overseas and forced them to rely on the booming Northern economy.
Because many citizens in the southern United States felt overpowered by the northern United States, it led into the Civil War. The controlment by the north over the south can be shown in this quote from Hinton Helper in document C, “we are dependent on Northern capitalists for the means necessary to build our railroads, canals, and other public improvements.” This conveys the idea that in contrast with the north, the south was less influential in decision making. They had to rely on the north to obtain goods and resources, and inventions were often decided to be made by the north. This was because the economy of the northern, free states was based on industries and business, so it was their job to maintain the production of goods, and make
Due to this, the economy of America at this period of time was centred around cotton and as Clement Eaton stated, 'After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the tempo of life in the South quickened.' The industry was able to achieve large profits through the use of slaves-the cheapest labour of all-and eventually 'Three-fourths of the world's supply of cotton came from the southern states.'
There are many other reasons that the south seceded from the union but those are just a few. The differences in economies, the protective tariff act, and the Election of 1850. Even though not all of the people of the south wanted to secede from the union, they still did, which eventually lead to the Civil War of the United
Great post. The invention of the cotton gin immensely changed the American economy. Southern cotton farmers planted larger crops, while Northern textile factories grew up to take advantage of the sudden cheapness of cotton. By 1860, the American South provided roughly two-thirds of the cotton sold worldwide, shipping it from its flourishing ports such as New Orleans and Charleston. However, in order to harvest and process those crops, Southerners needed more workers. The population of enslaved workers increased by 1850, and a higher ratio worked in the cotton fields than ever before. By the time of the Civil War, the invention of the cotton gin had led to an American South heavily dependent upon slavery for its
The South seceding from the Union and the causes and effects of the secession have played a pivotal role in shaping the United States of America. The South seceding from the Union was caused by political, economic and social difference between the North and the South. These differences included the North and South having different views on slavery, states rights and politics. To this day, the United States is divided when it comes to issues such as politics, economics and race relations.
One of the main differences of the economy were the railroads. The North had more railroads than the South because they used the railroads to transport medicines,soldiers,clothes,utilities,weapons, and foods during the war. In Document 1, the top map shows how the north had railroads going from different states and extending more. While, the South had a few railroads. In Document 2, the North’s railroad mileage was better since they did rely mostly on public transportation than the south did. Another difference was that the North was based on industrialization while the South was based on agriculture. In Document 1, the map on the bottom shows that the south’s main production was cotton. In Document 2, the graphs show that the North had 73% more population than the South who only had 27% of the population. The south had 88% more of slaves while the North had only had 12% of slaves. The North 1,300,000 industrial workers while the south only had 110.00 industrial workers. The North’s value of manufacturing goods yearly was over the south’s yearly value. The south instead relied on produce such as cotton while the north did not. Both used corn but the north produced it more than the south. These events caused the civil war to start because both had different economic
Did the southern states seceded from the union, and did it lead to the American Civil War. in the 1850’s there was an equal number of slave states and free states. This might have upset the south because they were all about slavery and wanted to keep money coming in without doing the hard labor themselves. Personally
Since the Civil War brought extensive economic change to the United States, civilians in the North and South faced many economic challenges. "In the North the arms, metalworkings, boot making, and shipbuilding industries boomed, but the scarcity of cotton caused widespread layoffs and closures in the textile industry" (Keene, 391). Even though workers' salaries rose by forty percent, prices increased even faster, resulting in inflation that averaged fifteen percent. Despite the North's economic hardships, the problems the South faced were far worse. "The Southern economy was hit hard by the cessation of trade with the North and Europe due to the Union blockade" (Keene, 391). Southern industry and agriculture were limited by persistent
The crops grown on plantations and the slavery system changed significantly between 1800-1860. In the early 1800s, plantation owners grew a variety of crops – cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, hemp, and wheat. Cotton had the potential to be profitable, but there was wasn’t much area where cotton could be grown. However, the invention of the cotton gin changed this - the cotton gin was a machine that made it much easier to separate the seeds from cotton. Plantation owners could now grow lots of cotton; this would make them a lot of money. As a result, slavery became more important because the demand for cotton was high worldwide. By 1860, cotton was the main export of the south. The invention of the cotton gin and high demand for cotton changed
“In 1840, the total value of manufactured goods produced in the United States stood at $483 million; ten years later the figure ad climbed to over $1 billion; and in 1860 it reached close to $2 billion” (Brinkley, 289). American businesses and its economy boomed because of the North being more industrial, the South was still a farmstead now. The North was becoming more of a society then the South and growing in new
The antebellum era (also referred to as the plantation era) between 1800’s to 1860 was a period of slave driven farming, marking the economic growth of the south. During this period in 1815, cotton was the most valuable traded produce in the United States and by 1840, it was more valuable compared to all other imported and exported goods combined. In 1860, one year before the Civil War, the South was predominantly reliant on the sale of agricultural products, such as tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton estimated at 5,344,000 bales, to a worldwide market. while the southern states generated two-thirds of the world's cotton supply, the South had little industrial capability (manufactured good estimated to the value of$156,000,000), consisting of an estimated 29 percent of the railroad tracks or 14484.1km, and only 13 percent of the nation's banks. The South attempted slave labour in manufacturing, but were mainly content with their agricultural economy. Their delay in industrial expansion was not the result of any integral economic disadvantages, there was a vast amount of wealth in the South, but it was mainly bound to slave labour. In 1860, the financial value of slaves in the United States surpassed the participated value of all of the land's railroads, factories, and banks combined. the day before the Civil War, the value of cotton was at its peak, the Confederate aristocrats were confident that the significance of cotton on the world market, especially in England and France,
By 1791, the U.S. was the largest producer of raw material in the world. In the South, cotton was the main exported crop, which of course led to an increasing demand for both slaves and land. But because of this,
With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let