Why Is Slavery Ingrained In The Southern Economy

Slavery was to ingrained in the culture and economy of the Southern states to be removed from the United States peacefully, and is the dominating reason for the outbreak of the US Civil War. The North and South had two extremely different cultures and economies. Therefore, it was only a matter of time until these two vastly different societies controlled by a single federal government, would clash. Slavery was the underlying reason for the secession of the South in December 1860. The Southern economy was too reliant on the use of slaves in their economy to abolish slavery. There was also conflict over whether two new states, Kansas and Nebraska would use slavery. State rights were also very important for the Southern states. They believed that

The South’s economy in parallel to the Northern economy was based primarily on the use of slaves in huge cotton, and tobacco plantations. The Northern states had already abolished slavery and instead used paid labour in their economy and most abolitionists in the North wanted the South to follow. However, for the South this was not possible, as if this occurred, the Southern economy would have been destroyed. In the US census in 1860, 30.8% of the population of the all states that would try to secede from the union were slaves. At this time, the South had a population of roughly 9 million people, meaning that there were 2.8 million slaves in these states. A federal bill abolishing slavery in the continental US would have sent the South’s economy into turmoil. Most of these slaves upon receiving their freedom would move away from the source of their oppression, the plantations, and move into Southern cities. This sudden influx of large numbers of inhabitants into the cities would create enormous slums filled with unemployed freed

The federal government based in the North was beginning, in the view of the South to have too much power over the states. The Southern states needed to have enough power over the federal government so that they could ignore a federal bill if they thought that it infringed on their rights. In the 1830’s, then president of the United States Andrew Jackson, declared “no state can legally annul a decision of the congress or refuse to submit to its execution.” This was an important decision because it set a precedent that federal laws could not be ignored by the states. The South wanted to declare any laws that affected slavery null and this decision meant they could not. Legally the North could have already abolished slavery nationwide, and the South wanted to protect themselves from this. They could only fight the potential new law if they had enough power over the federal government to do so. The South only wanted to decrease federal power over the states to better protect slavery in the