Civil War Economy Analysis

We all heard about the Civil War. Did you think that the Confederacy was very strong, or maybe that their economy was good? The South was very tough and ingenious! This is an interesting fact because Confederate troops were frequently poorly fed and often suffered from a lack of clothes and shoes. Some citizens from states outside the South who saw Confederate troops in their area commented on how surprised they were to see that many of those troops wore ragged uniforms and had no shoes.

The price of goods was so high and was so worthless that it cost Southerners in some places several hundred Confederate dollars to buy a single loaf. As a result hunger and no nutrient became bad, in addition, much of the land from Tennessee to Georgia and up to South Carolina had been destroyed by General William Tecumseh Sherman’s troops on their March to the Sea. Many slaves in the South effectively freed themselves by refusing to work and flocking to Union lines in droves. The North meanwhile was in many ways better off in 1864 than it had been before the war, for the economy had experienced an enormous boom during the war years and had set the industrial machine into high gear. This industrial boom in the North, coupled with inability pf Richmond’s government to provide cohesive leadership, won the war for the Union.

The south’s economy also halted due to the union’s barricade thus causing a halt in their cotton distribution. The south’s plan to gain the assistance from Britain also failed when the motivation behind the Civil war switched gears to slavery. However, despite all the disadvantages the south did have some pros over the union. Some military advantages include more advanced military leadership. Some big names in the south’s chain of command included Robert E. Lee, and Thomas “stonewall” Jackson and both proved to be extremely valuable when it came to their strategic placement of their men on the battlefield.

Picture the early days of the cotton industry: The Africans, being forced to migrate from their land, the sudden work that falls upon their shoulders, and to deal with the heartache of the separate from their families; beside this they carried Africans into slavery, in order to pick in a cotton field. In the process of building a great economy in America, most people lost the human side of them, or forget that people with dark skin are also human with hearts, not a machine! Ralph Waldo Emerson, express his opinion by saying: “Money often costs too much.”[1] During the seventieth century the money charged the Africans their lives. Owners of farms did not stop by making Negros picking crops, however they crossed the line and started trading them as a material. The public called it by “the slave trade”.

“An Occurrence at Owl Bridge Creek” takes place in the Southern United States during the American Civil War. One thing to remember about the Civil War is that most of the fighting took place on southern soil, and for the Union to succeed in winning the war, their forces had to conquer the South. Not only that, but due to the agriculture being so profitable in the South, few southerners saw a need for industrial development, which resulted in the need to destroy the blockades to prevent northern troops from advancing southward. Late in the Civil War, the Union and the Confederacy strived to dominate the rail lines in northern Alabama, with the Confederates frantically dismantling critical establishments to delay the northerners advance and fracture

The Civil War was a monumental bloodshed, which was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States, from 1861 to 1865. The primary cause of the war was the Southern states' desire to preserve the institution of slavery, which did not please the beliefs of the North. At the beginning of the Civil War, twenty-two million people lived in the North and 9 million people, which included four million of whom were slaves, lived in the South. The North, led by President Abraham Lincoln and his trusted generals, had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more food than the south. These advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States, which ultimately led to Northern victory.

That was the only way to consider themselves as ‘white’ wealthy people in the Old South. Johnson provides enough evidence to support his argument by using several primary sources. Slavery was absolutely very tough on slaves, but it also had an impact on its owners because they were very dependent on slavery. Everything revolved around slavery when it came to the slave

What was the south all about? Cotton was not the only crop grown in the South, but it was sure the crop that fueled the Southern economy. Southerners began saying ''Cotton is king'' because cotton became so populated that they would choose it over Industry. The cotton gin was a compact machine that removed seeds from cotton fibers. The value of enslaved people increased because of their key role in producing cotton and sugar.

The South did have the advantage of good officers to train the soldiers, but they had very few people for the job. Most of the South's population were slaves. The South had very few factories to make supplies and even with the supplies they had it was had to distribute it because most of the railroad was in the North. During the Civil War the North and South had both advantages as disadvantages.

The slaves, to the South, were a “peculiar and powerful interest” since it greatly supported the Southern economy through the cotton industry. The argument boils down to the fact that the South would rather “make war...then let the Union survive” however, the North was willing to “accept war rather than let it perish” showing us that the South was fighting for the money while the North was fighting for the idea and the hope that the Founding Fathers have planted.

While in the South indentured servants would work on plantations to grow tobacco, indigo, and cotton which were all very labor intensive. Once these people got out of servitude they would seek to farm the land themselves but often would not have the means to do so which led to a poor class of people who could not even afford slaves. These poor people made up an ample amount of the population. The poor class of the South obviously was unable to afford a plantation or slaves for that matter. Consequently, it can be implied that did not have a very large impact on their will to fight in the Civil War.

Southern states defended slavery by using history:” Slavery has been legal for a long time before now, so it is a natural thing to do.” On the other hand, the main point was that slaves planting and picking cotton would heavily boost the economy. There were plenty of other reasons justifying why slavery should be legal, but these were some main points. African-American people during pre-civil war times had a harsh life. Many black people during this time just mainly worked all of their lives non-stop. Thinking back, if slavery still existed now with all of this technology it would be even more wrong than it was before.

The booming production of cotton in the south during the 19th century was a vast money maker and supplied for the Southern economy, however, it also caused many set backs. Cotton fueled the economy of the Southern states and arguably the economy of the Northern states as well, and also played a major role in the global economy of that time. Cotton indeed brought great wealth to the Southern states, but only the plantation owners benefitted from this wealth. The rest of the population was left poor, uneducated, and illiterate. Despite the wealth and power that cotton brought to the south, it also brought slavery and thus the Civil War which ultimately left the South weak and powerless.

The South, as a whole, struggles economically. Aside from a few wealthy plantation owners, most of the population consisted of poor, subsistence farmers. They had few railroads, limiting trade and the use of free, slave labor prevented the South from industrializing, which caused the economy of the South to fall behind that of the North. While the northern economy was thriving, the South was struggling. Part of this stratification was due to the Transportation Revolution, which occurred largely in the North.

Slavery was a soft spot in the South because of the substantial value slaves had. Slaves’ value was both as labour force in the profitable cotton industry but also as tradable property and the loss of slavery would mean a massive