North South Economy Civil War essays

North South Economy Civil War essays How Economy Differences between the North and the South and the Pattern of Railroad Construction Fed Sectional Tensions before the Civil War. As the U.S. economy advanced and grew in size, each region of the country developed its own characteristics. The move toward industry made the regional differences between the North and South more pronounced and kept these sections of the United States further apart. While both sections favored canals and railroads to keep the new country moving, it was the Souths commitment to slavery that kept that section from aggressively trying to keep pace with the North. The economy of the Southern U.S. was agricultural with cotton as its main product. One third of the southern population was a slave. Since cotton was in high demand in Europe as well as in the Northern U.S., the South continued to concentrate on this main product. The invention of the cotton gin expanded the institution of slavery forcing the Southern economy to become even more dependent on slavery and less interested in developing their own manufacturing which maintained their rural atmosphere. With the majority of the wealth of the South invested in land and slaves, there was little left to devote to the expansion of industry, let alone a marketing strategy or transportation system to enable them to further promote their cotton. Consequently, the middlemen (mostly Northerners) made more money off the cotton than the Southerners did. The Southern people were not dependent upon one another due to the self-sufficient nature of plantations. The very nature of slavery affecte d the white population since southerners who were poor thought that working for another was a kind of servitude. Slavery also brought with it the societal effects of continued dominance of males and forced plantation owners to be vigil to the possibility of an uprising by the slaves. The South economy was stagnant, inefficient, and undeveloped a...