The decades leading up to the American Civil War showed a great divide in the economic, political, and regional attitudes between the North and South. These divisions still plague the country today. However, there is a divide on whether economic anxieties or political differences were the major factor in the run up to the Civil War. According to Michael F. Holt, economics did not play much of a role leading up to the American Civil War. Although, one can argue that political and economic issues go hand in hand. Mr. Holt does not see economic differences as the main cause for the American Civil War. He points to the fact that these economic an industry differences had been around for many years prior to the war with little friction. Bruce Levine, on the other hand, points to economics as the main reason for the Civil War. He points to two different economies between the North and South which had greatly different needs. The Northern economy was on of industrialization, urbanization, and the embrace of new technologies, such as the use of trains for transportation, and shipping goods. Factories were built. City living, and paid labor became the way of life for much of the North. Slavery was never really a factor to the Northern economy, so non-slave owners in the North, greatly out numbered the small number of slave owners that remained. Alderman-Roy2 In the South, however, the economy was predominantly agricultural. Cotton and tobacco plantations relied heavily on the free labor of slaves for their economic prosperity. They saw the urbanization and industrialization of the North, and the economic connection between the North a... ... middle of paper ... ...ain the “laid-back” attitude and shy away from social change. The irony of the political divide is the North is now Democratic and the South is Republican. The economies of the two regions are still very different. The North tends to be more pro-union and workers rights. Whereas the South, tend to have more right-to-work states, which embraces more of corporate rights stance. But unlike the 1800’s, our population has become more mobile. A “Yankee” from the North can live, and prosper, in the Deep South. On the same token, a “Southern Bell” can move to New York City and make it big on Broadway. We are much more intertwined and that may be the anchor that is holding us together, today.
Everything in history seems to lead to something else. The Civil War was no exception. It started with the creation of parties. Thomas Jefferson started the Anti-Federalist Party that would eventually evolve into Andrew Jackson’s Democratic Party. Policies were issued and the two party system started to collapse and sectionalism started to rise. Instead of Democrat versus Whig, it was North Versus South. Neither side could agree on any issues even when compromises were issued neither side really liked the terms. Every act lead to an argument and every argument led to a compromise which would only last for a few years. Eventually the South was tired of not getting their way and seceded from the Union. The underlying cause to the Civil War was sectionalism but many other causes were based on it.
The American Civil War was caused because of the North and South differences in economies, disagreements about abolishing slavery and whether the state or federal government had more power. These three factors played a key role in America's deadliest war. Understanding the causes of the Civil War is important because the war was one of the most important events in our nation's history. After the Civil War all men were truly created equal, it reunited the country as one, and redefined what it meant to be an
In the 1850's the North was more populous and urban, due to all the Irish and German immigrants that traveled to the states. By1860, 9 out of the 10 biggest cities were in the North. The North also had 70% of the railroads, and more telegraph lines to send messages instantly. The North had a lot more industry also, with its 10,000 factories that brought in $1.5 billion dollars in goods compared to the South's 20,000 that brought in $155 million.(Source 1) The
The Union economy was based on manufacturing, and even the minorities in the North were better off than those in the South most of the time. The Northern politicians wanted tariffs, and a large army. The Southern plantation owners wanted the exact opposite.
Growing dissent between the North and South began mounting years before the Civil War. This disagreement between the two regions led to each side understanding the major differences between one another. The regions had different political views, moral views, and views on the future for the economy. One key difference between the North and South was their view on slavery. The South’s economy was based primarily on cash crops like cotton. These crops were grown on plantations with slaves as the chief labor source. The South wanted to continue and expand the practice of slavery into the West, but the North was adamantly against such action. Many antislavery and abolition movements had significant support in the North. This disagreement eventually led to the beginning of the Civil War. Each side had different advantages and disadvantages at the onset of war due to the differences in the economies and people in the North and South prior to the Civil War. The key advantages and disadvantages of the North and South contributed to the success or complication of each side’s war strategies. The advantages of the North outweighed their disadvantages and the South’s advantages leading to a victory for the North in the American Civil War.
As the North began the transition from a society with markets to a market society, the lives of farmers and artisans began to change. The farmers became commercial
During the American Revolution and the civil war, the North and the South experienced development of different socio-political and cultural environmental conditions. The North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse as a result of rise of movements like abolitionism and women’s right while the South became a cotton kingdom whose labor was sourced from slavery (Spark notes, 2011).
The majority of speculations regarding the causes of the American Civil War are in some relation to slavery. While slavery was a factor in the disagreements that led to the Civil War, it was not the solitary or primary cause. There were three other, larger causes that contributed more directly to the beginning of the secession of the southern states and, eventually, the start of the war. Those three causes included economic and social divergence amongst the North and South, state versus national rights, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case. Each of these causes involved slavery in some way, but were not exclusively based upon slavery.
The Civil War was inevitable in many reasons. The economic and industrial evolution was mainly in the North side of the United States while the South was just a cotton kingdom, Slave Empire. Also both were completely opposites of one another when it was about freeing the slaves or hiring more. With many debates there has to be sides that would be separated especially if the president has so much hate from the people. With that being said, since many want opposing ideas, the Civil War becomes much evitable.
In the north, machines, interchangeable parts, and mass production were fast becoming a way of life. Northerners began building factories for mass production. These first factories were used for making textiles and later evolved to manufacturing a wide variety of goods. This created several opportunities for jobs. And with immigrants flooding in from Europe, finding employment was no problem. The factory system was efficient and inexpensive for the north to employ a large work force.
The North had confidently been recognized as a manufacturing society. Labor was needed, although not necessarily slave labor. Immigration was an encouragement. Immigrants that were from European regions worked in factories, built the railroads in the North, and developed the West. Very little stayed put in the South.
There are various explanations as to who and what really caused the Civil War. It is even fair to say that sometimes morals stand in the way when deciding who really started the war. Therefore, the facts must be analyzed clearly and in depth. It is true that the north played a major role in the Civil War, however, the south would not release their strict traditional beliefs of slavery. As time progressed, slavery debates pressured the South more and more to stand by their strict beliefs. Fugitive acts, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Secession all showed how the south used brutal methods to preserve slavery. Therefore, since the popular sovereignty doctrine, the pro-slavery souths’ strict use of slavery and decisions to secede from the nation, angered the north, leading to a civil war.
The population of the North consisted of forward thinking individuals. They realized that a change had to be made from agriculture to industry if they were to prosper and for them to use free labor to accomplish prosperity would be to take a step backwards. This ushered in an small and early Industrial Revolution. Factories and mills that produced finished goods sprung up all over the Northern United States along major waterways. These factories produced fabric, iron, machinery, weapons. Raw materials such as cotton was bought from the South and then sold back to them in the form of clothes. Iron workers made iron railroad ties for the growing railroads across the country. More machinery was being built than ever before. These machines were able to multiply the work that could be accomplished. These industries drew in people from rural areas because they were paying for work. As more people came, they settled around the factori...
Michael F. Holt, in his article The Political Divisions That Contributed to Civil War, argued the American Civil War was caused by the breakdown of the two-party political system, which generated a local loss of faith in the entire political system, justifying the creation of a new political system in the South. It was the agency of individuals attempting to solve their political grievances. While Bruce Levine, in his article The Economic Divisions That Contributed to Civil War, maintained unresolvable economic divisions between North and South made the Civil War inevitable, as the two different economies could not indefinitely coexist. While the conflicting economies of the North and the South played a major role in fashioning the war,
By having a well established economy, a society can function adequately through an established trade system, creating jobs for people, and by the up-keep and organization of economical infrastructures such as banks. Economy in the northern United States was more of an industrial/ educational economy. In the north there were far more factories, cities, schools, and banks. This led the northern economy to rely on its manufacturing and trade skills to allow their economy to prosper. As for the south, the economy was primarily based on agriculture and slave trade. The geographic positioning of the south allowed for a better growing environment for cash crops that would bring in a high revenue to the southern economy. Slave trade was also a major