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How Did The Civil War Affect The Economy

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The Civil War Era was an extremely pivotal and revolutionary time in American History. Even as one nation, the separation between the South and North were becoming increasingly noticeable and tensionable, thus the Civil War Era. It has been noted that one of the driving factors behind the cause of the Civil War were the increasingly different economies between the North and South. The North and South had a symbiotic relationship with one another so as the driving forces behind the economies of each grew apart and their fundamentals started differ, problems arose. One of the main dilemmas being slavery, and its impact on the economy. Slavery was the established way of life in the South, and virtually everything ruled around it, meaning, it was responsible for much of the nation's wealth and played a vital role in the economy of the whole nation. …show more content…

Slaves were used in virtually every aspect of the system; working in homes, construction, factories, mining, transportation, and agriculture (Schulman). By the 1850’s, owners were already extremely confident in the slave industry because of the wealth being acquired so rapidly and were very confident (“American Economic”). In addition, another factor that promotes the use of slavery directly affecting the economy of the North, South, and international systems, was based off the utilization and growth of one crop, cotton. Cotton had provided at the time over half of all the nation’s export income. By 1840, the South was producing over half of the world's cotton (“American Economic”). However, because the South was producing and running a successful economy, by 1860 the value of slaves alone was greater than all of the United States railroads, factories etc. combined

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