Civil War Vs Agriculture Essay

It was the late 1850’s, early 1860’s and the United States was experiencing a great divide between both the North and the South which eventually led to the start of the Civil War. One may ask why the rift existed between the states and it can simply be explained in just a few key points. Economic and social factors were a large contributor. The cotton industry in the south was booming with the invention of the cotton gin which in turn caused an increased need for slaves making the south a one crop economy.

Southerners were willing to go above and beyond for the sake of their state, beliefs, and neighbors, and Lincoln’s elections pushed their resentment for the North over the edge. Another division between Southerners was the issue of secession. This issue was a monumental division among Southerners in South Carolina. The majority of South Carolinians wanted to secede, but some wholeheartedly opposed the idea. “At Fernandina I saw young men running up a Palmetto flag, and shouting a little prematurely, ‘South Carolina has seceded!’ ”

Based upon superficial analysis of the Civil War, one would get the impression that the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the Emancipation Proclamation further incited the tensions between the North and South that contributed to the formation of the Southern Confederate States of America. The first point that stood out to me, contradicts the popular belief that the Civil War was caused by radical opposing views of slavery. A.K. McClure’s address highlights the ideology of both, the North and South, was rooted in rational principles. In addition, he discusses the opposing political views between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

In the year 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the civil war, Abraham Lincoln issued two executive orders. On January 1st, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and on March 3rd 1863 he suspended Habeas Corpus in the entire North territories. Both directives were closely related with the ongoing civil war. As Milkis and Nelson write in their book “The American Presidency”…” Lincoln was no abolitionist. Indeed, his relative moderation on the slavery issue helped him wrest his party’s 1860 presidential nomination away from the avowedly pro-emancipation William H. Seward…”

Because of the two contrasting economies and lifestyles, abolition was a hot mess to debate. While many Southerners agreed that the notion of slavery was a wrong one, they were unwilling to give up the empire they had built on the backs of their slaves. This meant that congress had its hands full trying to appease the two sides- the one,

The South’s secession was prompted by the events leading to the finalization of their cede. The North had a completely different atmosphere from the South. The North was growing into an industrial community, and was continuing on expanding their industries. The South was having economic troubles in the production of their cotton and tobacco companies because of the North’s economic success. The South wanted to be their own individual government, which would be known as the Confederates.

The South seceded because of slavery, political power, the differences in their way of life. Slavery was a major issue here in America. The South wanted slavery and the North didn’t. “Government cannot endure half slave, half free” (Doc 5).

Those is the south wanted to keep slavery as a way of making their money. The north primarily just wanted slavery gone. However, there were many standpoints all over America. Some believed that slavery should be abolished quickly whole others believed they should put an end to new slavery and let it die out on its own. There were other opinions on what should be done about slavery but one that was possibly the most fearsome for some was that some new states could now choose if they were or were not a slave state.

In the early 19th Century, the United States were divided over the issue of slavery. The majority of northern states wanted to stop its expansion or even abolish it, while the southern states wanted the opposite, as slavery was the most important factor in the southern economy. Eventually, the country broke into civil war over the issue. The American Civil War was a direct result of the building tension between the North and South due to lack of compromise and the difficulty of interpretation of the United States Constitution.

The American civil war occurred in 1861. This war marked a critical turning point in the United States history. The war pitted the northern against the southern states. The states in these two regions had different social, political and economic attributes. For instance, the North had a booming industrial sector whereas the South relied heavily on the agricultural sector.

Each section of the United States wanted what was best for them. The South depended on slavery for their plantations, they wanted more land which gave them more money to pay their taxes and expand their business; so didn’t care to develop or move into manufacturing. The North on the other side was not happy that they had to pay

Slavery marred the appearance of the United States, and therefore became an issue. It was not so much an issue for the northern states to get rid of slavery because the northern states did not have an agrarian economy. The main issue was for the southern states who had grown such an economy that without slave labor, the mere prospect of maintaining such an efficiency was seemingly impossible. The slow process of reforming the southern economy was slow to start- in fact, it never did start. The southerners were comfortable with the way in which they earned their money, and change did not suit

‘Slavery was the root cause of secession’. ‘November 6 1860, Lincoln was elected president of America which resulted in panic emerging in the South’ . The election of Lincoln as president who was a Republican leader meant that ideologies, movements and values from the North would be implemented in the South which meant the abolition of slavery. Slavery was a huge characteristic of the South as the economy; politics; social status and psychological mind-sets were influenced by the process of slavery. The southern white population then derived the idea of secession which meant the South would gain independence from Northern aggression .

One of the several factors that helped cause the Civil War was the economy at the time. While the economy wasn’t in bad shape, the North and South were different and had very different views and ideas about their futures. The Northern area couldn 't have huge farms like the South. However, they were very diverse in the items they wanted to produce.

There were three main causes of the civil war including slavery, sectionalism and secession. Slavery was a huge part of it and it led to the Missouri Compromise where any states below the border would be slave states and the anything north of that was free states. (Mrs. Wise) "The south feared the declaration of freedom for the slaves by government leaders in the North." Next, sectionalism. Sectionalism-