How the Agricultural Advances in the South Lead to the American Civil War, Essay Example

With the outbreak of the Civil War the southern farmers were forced to feed themselves by producing other agricultural sources and also provide agriculture to the other southern regions across the board in order to sustain enough wealth to survive. With the addition of tariffs it was very difficult for the southerners to sustain production of agriculture because excessive tariffs made raw materials very costly to the famers and with the lack of free slave labour after the end of the war plantation owners were forced to hire low wage workers to run their plantations and farm their crops. Rice, tobacco, sugar, hemp and cotton were considered the cash crops for the southern farmers and thus dominated the agriculture industry. Pork was a high commodity before the war but was transformed into beef production and after the start of the war corn and pea planting became a wealth of agricultural strength for the farmers across the southern regions of America. Federal armies began to destroy some of the crops and livestock as the war progressed causing numerous cash demise to the farmers. “As an agricultural region, the south had more difficulty than the north in manufacturing needed goods–for both its soldiers and its civilians. One result was that Southern civilians probably had to make more real sacrifices during the war than Northern civilians did.”[1] It was a common practise for the northern union to blockade the ports to restrict the southern flow of products to restrict food to the people and wealth to the famers thereby claiming demise to the southern economy. Though cotton was thought to be a profitable product for the southerners profit was restricted because hand picking was quite laborious and the seeds had to be picked out before making into cloth. The cotton gin was able to pull the seeds out of the cotton ball and make the production of cotton much faster for the making of clothing products in the south. Cotton was very cheap and easy to grow. Famers were able to plant more cotton because of the invention of the cotton gin. Because of the gin cotton became the number one crop in the south during the Civil War hence helping to keep the south afloat somewhat financially as a cash producing crop. Because the south has much of their capital tied up with slave labour they were not able to build profitable textile mills similar to those in the northern states. The south further did not have the need nor the capital to build transportation and highways like those in the north. They feared they would not be able to move products across states after their separation from the northern states. The northerners were more educated generally because most of the southern population consisted of uneducated slavers.  Cotton production only increased after the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 which essentially was the souths only means of income after the commencement of the Civil War due to the emancipation of slavery after the Emancipation Proclamation and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Northern states made use of the Civil War more than the South did. They advanced their railroad systems and built overland roads and turnpikes. Child labour and rural crime was evident in the southern states. The existence of the cotton gin made slave labour profitable in the southern states making cotton the number one export during the Civil War. “The south also adopted the steam engine, mainly to aid the cotton gin and to use on steamships to transport cotton. Ironically, the success of the cotton gin, by fostering slavery, helped to separate the two sides of the country and bring about the Civil War.”[2] Congress voted in a $1,000 award for research into agriculture and science before the Civil War commenced to aid with the promotion of agriculture in the rural states of the south. This was a very small stipend needed to tackle the problems the south was facing. As the pace of immigrants from Europe monopolized so did the issues with the lack of agriculture increase. The Department of Agriculture was founded in 1862 to aid with the development of scientific agricultural practises across American states. This was much too late to save the south from the financial demise caused by the tariffs and the loss of free slave labour.

With the invention of the cotton gin and progressive need for slave labour there was decreased need for agricultural production in the south hence the southern economy became a one crop economy. This one crop economy was based on the invention of the cotton gin and production and distribution for the need of clothing. “The south was based on plantation slave labour and the north was based on city life. The south held on tight to antiquated social order.”[3] Southerners were accustomed to using old ways of production but were happy to use new inventions that could pull them out of the financial demise they were in because of the war. The war eventually resulted in the abolition of slavery across America. The slaves eventually found their freedom by war of the underground railway. As the slaves gained their freedom there was not enough labour to handle the plantation homes in the south hence the agricultural could not be manned and the crops went to waste and the profits from the agricultural crops went to a demise. The southern slave owners had the slaves work their property and agricultural for little to no money at all. This slavery had went on for so long the southern slave owners had based their entire existence and profitability upon free slave labour and their demise would be created without the free slave labour.  The south went into the war to protect slavery for the protection of their business and crops.  Many slaves were sent to the front line right before the war and during the line to dig ditches, haul supplies and build fortifications. Slave owners were very scared to send their slaves to the front line in fear they might escape and for fear they might be overworked and mistreated whilst not under their close watch. “The shortage of white manpower left the South with no choice but to put slaves to work in its factories and mines. The use of slaves in industry and on the battlefield enabled the South to fight on longer than would have been possible otherwise. In the final days of the war, the Confederacy even considered using blacks as soldiers, offering freedom as a reward.”[4] After the Emancipation Proclamation slaves did not officially have their freedom but made it very difficult for the slave owners to get the same quality of work out of them. The Union or Confederate slaves had their freedom but the southern slaves did not. The southern slave owners fought avidly to keep hold of their slaves.  It was through the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that the slaves were given their freedom. The southern slave owners could no longer keep the slaves under their belt.

“Farmers were victim as well to the tariff policy of the United States during the Civil War. They were forced to buy all the manufactured goods they needed for survival on a market protected by tariff legislation at artificially high prices while selling what they produced on a largely unprotected and highly competitive market at depressed prices because of oversupply and foreign competition. Thus, the tariff policy of the country often worked a double hardship on agricultural interests. The federal government consciously sought to achieve this aim as a means of encouraging the industrial revolution after the Civil War. By putting an import tax or duty on manufactured goods being imported into the United States by foreign manufacturers, the government hoped to make them more expensive than the similar American manufactured goods. This virtually guaranteed that American consumers, seeking to maximize their disposable income, would buy American goods. Protective tariffs were one of the many reasons why American industry grew so quickly during the final third of the nineteenth century.”[5] Southerners felt the tariffs were directed towards them because they imported more foreign goods than the northerners and further felt the tariffs were unfair because they were aimed toward them. Because of these tariffs the southern banks were forced to pay higher interest rates than the northern banks and forced to charge consumers and business owner’s higher interest rates on individual loans. This caused the nation to split causing sectionalism. Business owners and farmers argued these tariffs were rip-offs by the government to force them into succeeding and into using the greedy banking agencies but to no avail they could not fight off the tariffs. The tariffs were so stiff and monopolized the purchasing of the items needed they were forced to purchase them. Perhaps the government pushed these tariffs in order to strengthen the economy but for the southerners who did not have different means for income they were not able to survive as well as the northerners due largely to the fact they were solely dependent upon free slave labour. Due to this dependence the southern states wanted to split from the United States and become govern their own but when Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States he wanted to keep the states united and free from slavery. The states formed a new nation called the Confederate States of America but they had to eventually surrender as many northern states joined together against the rebellion. The southerners felt they were rebelling against their way of life for over two hundred years and took this attack personally. “The fighting of the American Civil War would last four long years at a cost of 620,000 lives. In the end the Northern states prevailed- our country remained united, the Federal government was changed forever, and slavery came to an end.”[6]

“Let it be remembered that should the bonds of Union be severed, peaceably or forcibly, that man must eat to live. Soldiers cannot fight, nor do men, women and children live on air, nor on Cotton and Sugar. The Southern Confederacy, whether at peace with the North, or at dagger’s point, must assert her independence in all things and in Agricultural resources and products no less than in other respects.”[7] When legal restrictions to slaveholdings came in the northern territories southern slaveholders took their slaves to the Missouri territory and eventually a compromise was reached. Many slaveholders settled in the Arkansas area and in the Texas regions. By this time the south had lost much of its political, economic and agricultural wealth and it needed to fight for four more years. “Southern states, cities, and corporations also printed countless millions in notes, which became equally valueless at war’s end. Yet, the loss of these securities paled by comparison with the cost of emancipation.”[8] Though the last of the slaves received their emancipation after the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment the slave owners received no compensation with the passing of the Amendment and were left in the hole financially.

After the war the trade industry via waterways declined and many of the slave owners took on storekeeper positions to make their way out of financial ruin that had been caused by the war. The steamship industry was on the decline which was needed by the south to move their products up and down the river.  Many things contributed the loss of agricultural gains but the abolition of slavery was the greatest demise for the southern slave owners. During the 1860’s slaves were the largest producers of cash for the slave owners across the south. The plantation owners had to substitute free slaves for low wage workers to the plantations. This was quite costly for them considering they were accustomed to running their plantation on free slave labour for over two hundred years. Further they were not able to have total mind control over the workers because they did not own them anymore. The southerners obviously did not have a good plan in mind because they were not able to survive financially without the slave labour even with the production of cotton. They had become accustomed to the good life of free slave labour and simply did not think the slaves would ever gain their freedom by way of the law. This was an example of the backwards thinking the slave owners possessed during the times prior to and during the American Civil War. As mentioned earlier the invention of the cotton gin with cotton as the sole product during the American Civil War for the southerners helped them to survive the financial burdens caused by the war. Survival was the only implication though; prosperous growth was not seen for some time to come.

Following the Civil War Republicans wanted to make sure they kept control of the political offices of upper government and knew the freedom of the blacks would ensure that. Republicans further kept control by denying whites from voting in the south. “Laws were passed stating that no white could vote in the south if he had taken part in the rebellion against the Union. This kept most of the whites from voting for the democrats and kept the majority of the votes with the Republicans.”[9] Congress controlled the pre-emption laws for states re-entry into the union to protect black’s freedom rights. Many blacks were sent to the north to support the Republican party-carpetbaggers. Men who cooperated with the blacks were called malicious names-scalawags. The northerners had begun to show some sympathy to the black slaves and the southerners had to deal with the repercussions of losing the American Civil War.

References

The South During the War (2009) Retrieved December 6, 2009 from, http://rs6.loc.gov:8081/learn/features/timeline/civilwar/southwar/south.html

Civil War and Industrial and Technological Advances Retrieved December 6, 2009 from, http://www.bookrags.com/research/civil-war-and-industrial-and-techno-aaw-02/

Kelly, M. (2009) Top Five Causes of the Civil War (2009) Retrieved December 6, 2009 from, http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilwarmenu/a/cause_civil_war.htm

Slavery During the Civil War (2009) Retrieved December 6, 2009 from, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/slavery-during-the-civil-war.html

John, O. (1994) The Civil War and Southern Agriculture Retrieved December 6, 2009 from, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=15095532 ( Hinkley 1861: 13 )

John, O. (1994) The Civil War and Southern Agriculture (1994) Retrieved December 5, 2009 from, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=15095532  (Todd 1954:120)

Agricultural Problems During the Revolution Retrieved December 5, 2009 from, http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his1302/agrarian.html

What Caused the Civil War? Retrieved December 6, 2009 from, http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettKidz/cause.htm

Jarmul, D. (2005) Reconstruction: After the Civil War, the American South Rebuilds Retrieved December 6, 2009 from, http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa4.cfm

[1] The South During the War (2009)

[2] Civil War and Industrial and Technological Advances

[3] Kelly, M. (2009) Top Five Causes of the Civil War (2009)

[4] Slavery During the Civil War (2009)

[5] Agricultural Problems During the Revolution (2008)

[6] What Caused the Civil War?

[7] ( Hinkley 1861: 13) The Civil War and Southern Agriculture (1994)

[8] ( Todd 1954:120) The Civil War and Southern Agriculture (1994)

[9] Reconstruction: After the Civil War, the American South Rebuilds