The Civil War: The Great American Tragedy

They depended on slavery to run their large plantations and take care of their major cash crop, cotton. Their economy was more agricultural and needed the slaves as workers in the fields and plantations. The South really depended on slavery after the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793. This was a machine that reduced the time it took to remove the seeds from cotton. With the invention of the cotton gin many plantations moved from their other crops to produce cotton.

Together, they rendered the Missouri Compromise meaningless. As the South’s dependence on slavery increased between 1790 and 1860, the gap between the Southern cotton economy and industrial economy of the North widened. The opposing goals and needs of the North and South created a deeper conflict- a conflict that eventually lead to war. Basically, the North fought to keep the union together, and give black slaves freedom, while the South fought for their lifestyle, homes, and to keep things together economically. The northerners had high moral issues while the Southerners wanted to keep their plantations and cotton production.

And the North believed it was a “War of a Revolution”. This unfortunate war started as a result of many years of differences between the North and the South. It broke out after many years of battle building up between the two regions. The main cause of the civil war was economic, social and political differences, but most importantly slavery was the root cause of these differences. During the Civil War the economy developed between the two states.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, cotton had become the main harvested crop in the area. With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton was able to be produced much more easily and efficiently. By 1860, cotton represented fifty-seven percent of all United States exports. The immense profitability of cotton, created the South’s dependence on the crop, and its essential component, slavery. In the North, were slavery was illegal, managers of factories and mills had to... ... middle of paper ... ...whether the state/territory would be free or slave), it actually caused more conflict because the free-staters and the pro-slavery activists would fight for the upper hand in said states.

The Southerners were indignant and disturbed by the threat of totally changing their economic system and they did not like being told they were morally wrong. Not only was slavery an important factor in starting the Civil War but also the Southern States had different view points on important issues such as states' rights and property rights. The number one goal of the South was the preservation of their main source of capital: cotton and slaves. At the same time, the North was turning more and more to manufacturing. The Northern States were dedicated to a more modern way of living (industrialization).

The South on the other hand wanted to reserve all undefined powers to the individual states. The North wanted improvements such as more railroads, canals, and roads to be sponsored by the Federal Government, while the South did not want any of these projects to even be taken into consideration. The North and the South had deep economic, social, and political differences. Even though all these reasons existed for them wanting to succeed from the North, I believe the main reason was slavery. The South not only wanted but they needed slavery, for it was the basis of their economy.

Tensions had built up between the two, until the South had decided to secede, or withdraw, from the Union. Although both Northerners and Southerners had believed strongly in their causes, both sides had a different perspective over slavery that would spark the event of a deadly war. The period before the Civil War, also known as the Antebellum years, was a time when America grew into a great nation. Industrialization had flourished, and the infrastructure of the nation grew. However, although this nation had grown large, it was slowly starting to separate in this era.

With the South’s comparative advantage in the development of raw cotton, it experienced a geographic relocation... ... middle of paper ... ...ovements of cotton textiles to North and South Carolina. However, “the southern effort to industrialize progressed slowly”. Overall, the South’s mistake was the decision to overspecialize in slave-agriculture which crowded out other investment opportunities and displaced physical capital. Moreover, the capitalists of the South saw a profitable investment in slaves, thus with the rise of cotton demand their investment in slavery intensified. It is difficult to fault the Southerner’s for their decision in overspecializing.

As more and more technological advances came to the nation, the North slowly became a more industrialized region. The South, however, remained a more agrarian society, focusing on plantation agriculture. A key component in the economies of both the North and South was cotton. Following the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793, it became much easier and cheaper to harvest cotton. As such, cotton became more ... ... middle of paper ... ...gulations as very harmful to their economy.

For generations students have been taught an over-simplified version of the civil war and even now I am just coming to a full understanding of the truth. The civil war was a terrible rift in our nation, fought between the northern states (known as the union) and the southern states (the Confederate States of America). The people’s opinions were so divided over the issues of the civil war that, in some families, brother was pit against brother. Eventually, the south succumbed to the north and surrendered on April 9th, 1865 but not before the war had caused 618,000 deaths, more than any other war in U.S. history.