The Impact of the American Civil War

The American civil war was an important event in the history of United States. It changed the internal structure of American society and had a greater impact than the revolution. The basis of the civil war was due to slavery. It overthrew the once dominated planter elite politically and its slaveholding class. During early decades of the nineteen-century the planters of American south were not about to follow the path of gradual emancipation that the northern states had raged. The economies of the south and north, continues to go in opposing directs. By 1791, they were already producing 2 millions of pounds of cotton that made British textile industry to have a vast appetite for cotton corp. That made the North and South profit from growing cotton. That made southern states grew from eight states too fifteen states. The population in the south grew more than five times. The growing demand for cotton sustained this expansion. Between 1830-1860 world demand for cotton consumption had increases by 5% per year. Cotton expert helped balance the country international trade and finances, to maximize profits the southerners farmers are planters import the food from the northwest and pushed for utilized vast land to grew cotton. The plantations were way of life in the south which in 1670, Englishmen came to South Carolina and expand the plantation. By that they brought their African slaves which later have increased to 263000. Therefore, plantations and institution of slavery spread across the South. The large plantations and the system of slave labor shaped the culture of the Southern colonies. The plantation owners had time for education, and they had money to buy things from England. Owners of the largest plantations beca... ... middle of paper ... ...th a nearly challenging obstacle. They produced too little cotton to be able to cover the costs of shipping it to a processing plant, most likely in the North or England, their primary consumers. Within ten years, cotton became the main crop in the south. In 1790, before the invention of the cotton gin, about 3000 bales of cotton were produced in the United States. Ten years later 100000 thousands bales were produced. The Virginia Company intended to send cotton plants to Jamestown in 1607, but the rapid emergence of tobacco as the colony's cash crop doomed early cotton cultivation despite efforts to encourage it by both Governors William Berkeley and Edmund Andros. Even the depression in the tobacco economy from 1702-1708 failed to convince planters to switch from tobacco since cotton depleted the soil and required so much hand labor that it was unprofitable.