How Did The Civil War Affect The Economy

By the end of the Civil War, America’s economy was weakened significantly. In a way, however, the Civil War produced many new and useful inventions which benefitted the United States after the War. Even after the disappearance of slave labor, the South’s economy was still heavily based on agriculture products, such as wheat, corn, and cotton. Various inventions of technology, economic conditions, and government policies all played an important role in changing America’s agriculture in the decades after the Civil War.

One useful invention that was used more often after the Civil War was the railroad. In the 1860s, the North built numerous rails using government funds to speed up the transportation of supplies and soldiers. In 1870, there were

After the Civil War, the South’s land lay in ruins and millions of people, whites and blacks alike, were milling around with no income. Sharecropping was invented so a landowner could hire people to work on his land and they would share the benefits with each other. However, this form of work turned out to be devastating. As a sharecropping contract from North Carolina showed, the workers had to pay off all their debts and the landowner would then collect half of the “net proceeds” (E). Because of a farmer’s ability to produce products faster than before, this actually led to them producing more crops than the public needed and wanted. In 1865, a bushel of wheat sold for $2.61. A few decades later in 1900, the same amount was worth only $0.62 (A). Many individuals and families, such as Mary Elizabeth Lease in 1892, were frustrated and disappointed at the results from working in the

As a result, they turned their anger on the railroads, blaming them that it was their fault. The farmers believed because the railroad was the best form of transportation, they had created a monopoly and could charge farmers more than required. While farmers tried to get the federal government to halt this proceeding, few states, such as Illinois, actually had enforced it as a law (C). In late 1800s, angry farmers grouped together and formed the Populist Party, where they advocated government control of the rails and more importantly, the use of silver money, which would help farmers pay off their debts from sharecropping much more easily. In 1896, William Jennings Bryan, the candidate for the Populists, campaigned and gave passionate speeches about the importance of silver money (J). While he did not win the election, farmers eventually changed their view on the rapidly changing agriculture