Economic differences Flashcards
Evidence 1
Northern and Southern economies were developing in different ways due to their differences in geographical and industrial nature. There were greater industrial developments in the North rather than the South as of around 140, 000 US factories, the South was only home to 20, 000 of them.
Additionally, majority of immigrants who moved to the US settled in the North. In 1860 1 in 6 Northern inhabitants were foreign, however only 1 in 30 Southern inhabitants were foreign, meaning that the South was less influenced by foreign culture than the North so was less progressive in their attitudes towards slavery.
James McPherson argues that the visible difference between sectional cultures and economies meant that they began to adopt different morals as he says “Many antebellum Americans certainly thought that North and South had evolved separate societies with institutions, interests, values, and ideologies so incompatible.
Topic sentence
Historians such as James Ford Rhodes argue that the economic gulf between the North and South was the most significant reason for the outbreak of Civil War.
Evidence 2
Furthermore, discontent over the tariff (a tax put on imports) caused a sectional divide. Southerners urged for free trade and argued that their section was being economically exploited by the North, they also believed that the tariff benefited Northern industrialists at the expense of Southern farmers. The south depended on Northern credit to fund the growing of tobacco, cotton and sugar; they were dependent on Northern vessels to transport these goods. Inevitably, much of the profits of Southern cotton ended up in the pockets on Northerners
Analysis
This led to the outbreak of civil war because Southern economy was based on Slavery, while Northern economy was not, leading to disagreements and secession. Southerners were unhappy when Lincoln wanted to prevent the expansion of slavery because it would ruin their economy as their economy was not built to deal with the breakdown of slavery because it was based on it.
Counter analysis
However, the North and South shared a similarity in their economy which was the unfair distribution of wealth, as historian Alan farmer argues “both Northern and Southern whites lived in a stratified society in which there were great inequalities in status, material conditions and opportunity.”
Evaluation
To evaluate, the economic gulf between the North and South was a significant reason for the outbreak of civil war in 1861. It resulted in their societies developing in different ways which meant that they had different economic tactics. Historian James Ford Rhodes therefore argues that slavery was an evil, but an evil which had predominantly flourished from economic reasons.
