Causes of the Civil War

Focus: Two Economic Systems

“A House Divided Cannot Stand ….”

Essential Cause: Slavery

Other Factors: Pressures on the existence of Slavery

· Two Different Economies – North and South

· States Rights vs. Federal Government Power

· Territorial Expansion and Manifest Destiny

· Reform Movements: Abolitionist Movement

Conditions of Slavery – 1800 – 1820

Legalized by U.S. Constitution

· 3/5 clause – Southern States

· End of Slave Trade in 1808 – Northern States (Rationale)

The Market Revolution

Two Different Economies – North and South

Two key issues of debate:

· Free (wage) labor vs. Slave labor

· Commerce, trade and industrialization in North vs. agricultural economy in the South

Southern States: Cotton is King vs. Conditions of Slavery

Economic Issue:

· Southern States – to Mississippi River (Territory gained in American Revolution)

· Cotton and the Cotton Gin

· Cotton – largest contribution to national economy by 1860

Population Issue

· End of Slave Trade from Africa – 1808

· Domestic Slave Trade within United States

· Need: larger labor force of slaves

Solutions:

· Forced marriages among slaves

· Rape / corrosion of black female slaves

· 1.5 million Slaves - 1820; 4 million slaves by 1860

· Profit: Slave labor - $78 profit to slave owner; cost of food, lodging of slave - $32

Other Factors:

Most white southerners did not own slaves.

Emergence of African American culture

· Family life and marriage

· Kinship networks

· Black Church

Industrial Revolution and Northern States

Historical Context

· Great Britain – 1780s

· Continental Europe and United States – 1820s

· Issue: Technology

Factories in Northern States

Geographical distribution

Textile Industry (making fabric)

· Leading industry between 1820 – 1860

· Connection with Southern cotton production

Example: Lowell, Massachusetts

· Lowell Mills – Employment of unmarried, young women

· Emergence of “working class” by the 1830s

Other Factors

· Transportation Revolution: Roads, Canals, Railroad

· Population Growth: natural increase and immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Great Britain

· Capital Investment: European and American investors in infrastructure of commercialization, banks, and transportation

· Government support of industrial and commercial expansion.