Slavery and the American Civil War

1234 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Development of slavery

Slavery “War is at best barbarism….Its glory is all moonshine….War is hell. (Union General William Tecumseh Sherman) A wise quote by an even wiser man, The Civil War was agreed a “hell”. For four years (1862-1865) a war was fought between both Northern Union states and Southern Confederate states over the matter of slavery. During this time period many changes were happening in the United States; the election of an anti-slavery president, Southern states trying to secede to become their own independent country. These factors and many more including slavery were the main causes of The Civil War. To begin slavery was the main income for southern states. Many would argue that tobacco or cotton was main profits for Southern states, but we can all agree that without slavery there would be no gatherings of both products. The Southern states would believe that slavery is acceptable; they would do so by scaring people into believing that “Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. The cotton economy would collapse. The tobacco crop would dry in the fields. Rice would cease being profitable.” Slave owners were looking for a way to maximize the use of slaves, in doing so Eli Whitney created the cotton gin1. Since this revolutionary machine was increasing the production of cotton it required for more slaves to be put to work in fields. During this same time in the union states happened to be more industrialized and didn’t require as much slavery as Confederate states did, this led to slavery being- -unacceptable thus rendering it as illegal. In this time The Enlightenment2 period ... ... middle of paper ... ...ies and go embark on their own journeys. Whether or not you agree with Confederate or you’d agree with more of the Unions ideas it is all based on history, without historical research or any account on this war I believe that we could all agree that in the end the victor is the one who is fighting for the cause of the little man. The little man is the person who can’t stand alone, whose hope is all placed into your arms. In The Civil War the little man would be viewed as the slaves, and their savior was the Union troops who willingly gave their life up so that they would be set free from their slave holders grasp. In conclusion the North had viewed slavery as morally wrong, but the South required it for their businesses both agricultural and industrial to not only survive but thrive. The Civil War not only fought for morality but for a group of people’s economy.

Show More
Related

  • Slavery in America between 1800 and 1860

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within the economy a great development had been achieved when the upper south handed its power to the lower south all due to the rise of an agricultural production. This expansion was led by the excessive growth of cotton in the southern areas. It spread rapidly throughout America and especially in the South. During these times it gave another reason to keep the slavery at its all time high. Many wealthy planters started a ‘business’ by having their slaves work the cotton plantations, which this was one of a few ways slavery was still in full effect. Not only were there wealthy planters, at this time even if you were a small slave-holder you were still making money. While all of this had been put into the works, Americans had approximately 410,000 slaves move from the upper south to the ‘cotton states’. This in turn created a sale of slaves in the economy to boom throughout the Southwest. If there is a question as to ‘why’, then lets break it d...

    Read More

  • Economic Difference as the Main Cause of the Civil War

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery was merely one of the causes of the Civil War. Some historians argue that the political difference between the North and the South is a more influential cause of the Civil War while some insist that economic is the main cause. In fact, the political division between the North and the South was affected by the differences in the economic system of both. The North and the South had had different economic backgrounds that were established since the American colonial period. These economic differences from the colonial period brought about the political division that was based on preserving each other’s own wealth or property and eventually caused the Civil War.

    Read More

  • Slavery in the South 1800's -1860's

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery in the south was decreasing slowly but surely in the late 1700’s to very early 1800’s due to the fall of tobacco, people were beginning to lose profit, and therefore slaves. Around the 1800’s to 1860’s however, a new king came to rule replacing tobacco, cotton was the new king. This, the growing of cotton, along with the expansion of land and the slave trade itself helped make slavery boom back up again during this time period. The changes were so high, that Alabama once having a slave population of 41,000 to an incredibly high 435,000 slaves, slaves were needed, and were on a high demand during the 1800’s through 1860’s with the textile industry in Great Britain and New England booming.

    Read More

  • Civil War and The South's Loss

    1824 Words  | 4 Pages

    First, the South couldn’t have won the civil war because state’s rights prevented unification of the South. The very issue that created the Confederacy helped to destroy it. In waging war, the South faced problems of politics and government that greatly complicated its problem of economic mobilization. No one would deny the troublesome effect of the conflict generated by differing ideas of how best to protect liberty and to organize southern society for the war effort. Southern people insisted upon retaining their democratic liberties in wartime, which proved fatal for the South. They had to struggle with a “confederacy formed by particularistic politicians [that] could hardly be expected to adopt promptly those centralists polices which victory demanded” (Donald, p. 26). Individual state governors fought bitterly with Jefferson Davis to prevent him from consolidating power to fight the war. They withheld troops and supplies while the Confederate Congress spent its time arguing over the rights of the states instead of prosecuting a war of national survival. Many internal conflicts within the South were acquiring and weakening the South’s unity. Internal conflicts caused confederate officials to choose between moving troops from the coasts and strengthening their armies, or leaving the...

    Read More

  • Slavery During, In, and After the Civil War

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    the same feelings yet a different color for their own good . This was quite

    Read More

  • Advantages Of The South In The Civil War

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    What started as a war to prevent the South from seceding quickly turned into a war against slavery following President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. At the start of the Civil War, both Union and Confederate sides believed that they would had a quick and decisive victory. The North’s population and industry was vastly greater than the South’s, but the South had superior military leadership, a large white population that was united against invading Union armies and a hope that France or Britain would intervene on their behalf.

    Read More

  • Special Field Order 15 Essay

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Especially since the South had 11 states within its territory, compared to the North containing 23 states. While the North’s “industrialists invested in the expansion of railroads and textile mills, ” the South’s economy relied heavily on cotton farming (Lecture 8/29). But when taxes on imported and exported goods began, this negatively affected the Southern economy and improved the Northern economy. In consideration of the South depending on selling cotton overseas and the North being increasingly industrialized, the South’s profits began to decrease, through the encouragement that America should trade within sections of the country. To further the economic cause of the civil war, it was apparent that “the trade balance was in favor of the North” (Fontanilla). With cotton being the backbone of the Southern economic strength, many feared that without slavery, every aspect of Southern would go down and life would turn into shambles. All of the South felt threatened by the abolition of slavery and the fading economy in their states, which added more fuel for Confederates and Unionists to go to

    Read More

  • Causes of the American Civil War

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    Why were the southern states so dependent upon slaves that they were willing to fight a war over their right to keep them? The answer lies in the social and economic differences between the north and the south. The southern United State’s climate was perfect for agriculture. Plants like tobacco, cotton, indigo and sugar had become extremely profitable to produce.(2-615) To increase profits, the farms, known as plantations, had to grow. Managing a plantation of an average of 335 acres took a lot of labor, and the most economical source was the slave trade. Without slaves, plantation owners would have to hire people to manage their farms, an option that many were either unable to take or unwilling to consider.

    Read More

  • The American Civil War: Was It Inevitable?

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...Northerners couldn’t respect their wishes to decide how to deal with slavery and fugitive slaves in their own states, they may as well not even be a part of the United States. This led to secession and once again, The Civil War.

    Read More

  • North Vs South Civil War Essay

    1453 Words  | 3 Pages

    The North is characterized as a cold rocky place, largely unsuitable for the farming lifestyle. Whereas the South had huge swaths of farmable land and a warm climate. These realities led to vastly different economies. The framework of the North’s economy being factories and the South’s stemming from manual labor. As the North modernized itself, through the building of railroads and automation of factories, its Southern counterpart remained stagnant as the result of an agrarian economy driven by slave labor. With these immutable environments forcing the North to industrialize and the South to farm, a division was created. The division was the need for slaves. A place built around factories is not in such dire need for free labor as the huge farms of the South are. The South lost the second they decided to continue on the abominable path of slavery while refusing the alternate option of industry. Physical realities soon transformed into political ones and the game of prolonging the Armageddon of our country

    Read More

  • Slavery During The Pre-Civil War

    420 Words  | 1 Pages

    Before the Civil War, nearly 4 million African Americans were enslaved in the South. Slavery during the Pre-Civil war period was widely recognized and used in the southern states. This controversial practice caused lots of tension in the country. The South used slaves to tend its large plantations and perform other duties. While the Northern states one by one had abolished slavery, they felt like the practice was wrong ethically and morally. Southerners justified the practice with legal reasons, religious, and economic arguments.

    Read More

  • Economic Differences In The Civil War

    205 Words  | 1 Pages

    The way that the Economies, Societies, and Politics from the North and South contributed differences in the Civil War is that the North and South differences. The economics of the North had increased population due of values contrasted and future visions. ‘’The economic differences between the North and South contributed to the rise of regional populations with contrasting values and visions for the future’’ (North and South, N/d). The South’s economy was on slaves and large farms or plantations. The societies were and were not balanced. The South’s population consisted more of slaves than white people, but they considered them as properties as well as one-third of a person. The North’s society was calmer and had less plantations or farms.

    Read More

  • Abraham Lincoln During The Civil War Essay

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery in the south became a popular way to make money. Within 50 years the amount of slaves rose from around 1,190,000 to nearly 4,000,000. Around the time that slavery became profitable in the south, a surge of democratic reform crowded the North and West (Britannica School). As the demand to make profit increased, slavery increased also. The northern states were mostly anti slavery states and believed that slavery was morally wrong and cruel. These beliefs caused tension between the northern and southern states. In Britannica School, the article American Civil War explains, “More and more northerns became convinced that slavery should not be allowed to spread to new territories” ()Northerners felt as if slavery was taking more jobs away

    Read More

  • Slavery as the Cause of the American Civil War

    1746 Words  | 4 Pages

    The American Civil War was the bloodiest military conflict in American history leaving over 500 thousand dead and over 300 thousand wounded (Roark 543-543). One might ask, what caused such internal tension within the most powerful nation in the world? During the nineteenth century, America was an infant nation, but toppling the entire world with its social, political, and economic innovations. In addition, immigrants were migrating from their native land to live the American dream (Roark 405-407). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand African slaves were being traded in the domestic slave trade throughout the American south. Separated from their family, living in inhumane conditions, and working countless hours for days straight, the issue of slavery was the core of the Civil War (Roark 493-494). The North’s growing dissent for slavery and the South’s dependence on slavery is the reason why the Civil War was an inevitable conflict. Throughout this essay we will discuss the issue of slavery, states’ rights, American expansion into western territories, economic differences and its effect on the inevitable Civil War.

    Read More

  • Civil War Causes

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American Civil War was a war fought within the United States of America between the North, later known as the Union, and the South later known as the Confederacy, starting from 1861 and ending in 1865. This war is seen as one of the most devastating events in American history, costing more than 600,000 lives. From the Southern point of view, this war was a ‘War of Rebellion’, or a ‘War for Southern Independence’. From the Northern point of view this war was seen as a revolution. This war started as a result of many years of disagreements and conflict building up amid the two regions. Between the North and the South there lay deep economic, social and political differences, but it is important to understand that slavery was the root of cause

    Read More

More about Slavery and the American Civil War

Open Document