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Civil War Economy

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The Civil War was one of the most deadliest wars ever fought in history. Slavery was a direct influenced this war that shed so many lives. It was also an issue that divided the North and South. Many Southerners directly depended on slavery and so did their economy. The Southerner’s persistence on expanding slavery towards the West not only led to the war but also a moral crusade. The treatment of a race in this manner was unacceptable and called for immediate change which was the result of the American Civil War. The South economy was almost entirely built around slavery. It’s economy made millions in profits off of cotton. After the invention of the cotton gin, cotton could now be produced faster than ever before. This increased the demand for more slaves. 4.9 million bales of cotton were being harvested annually, and most of it was exported through Northern ports. Slaves were also sold in slave auctions by slave owners for thousands of dollars each. They were closely examined for appealing traits such as muscularity, age, and gender and were then priced accordingly. These examples show how dependent slaves were to the Southern economy. Southerners did not want to emancipate their slaves and insisted on the expansion of slavery into Western …show more content…

On the other hand, the Union believed that it is flat out evil to dehumanize a single race based off of color. The South seceded because they felt the Union was hostile towards their interests which was slavery. Eventually, slavery was ruled unconstitutional when they passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which defined citizenship to all citizens. After Lincoln declared emancipation of slaves, many slaves fled north to fight for the Union. Over 180,000 African Americans joined the Union

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