The crops grown in the south were generally cash crops like tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton. Agriculture was diversified in Virginia and central Kentucky. Most farmers tried to produce food grains for their family and their slaves so 80% of all peas and beans came from the south.
Other things like apples, peaches, peanuts, sweet potatoes, hops, mules etc. despite aspiring to self-sufficiency, corn and salted pork for the slaves had to be imported from the northwest.
Tobacco was grown in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, northern and western Tennessee, Missouri and Mississippi valley. It was grown in the tideland of the regions and required 6 months for their production. Rice required 9 months and a constant supply of water for its growth and was generally grown in South Carolina, Georgia and other coastal regions. The time needed for the growth of sugar was 9 months and had the largest area under production. Cotton was grown from North Carolina to Texas and was the principle product of the south with the exception of the coastal area. It was produced in Alabama, Georgia, northwest Mississippi, southwest Tennessee, southern Arkansas, Louisiana and eastern Texas.
The farming methods employed which resulted in the exhaustion of soil as no crop rotation was practiced. Some improvements were suggested by Edmund ruffle in ?Farmer?s Register? like fertilization, rotation and deep ploughing.
Slavery as an institution was established by law and was regulated by law. The slaves had no property rights, could not leave their master?s premises without his permission, could not congregate with other slaves except at church, couldn?t carry firearms, couldn?t strike a white man even in defense, were not allowed to read or write, were denied the right to testify in court against a white and were not allocated any provision for the legalization of their marriage and divorce. Anyone who might have slave ancestry would be a slave until he could prove otherwise. If a master killed his slave, he could not be taken to court.
Most laws pertaining to slaves and their treatment were unevenly applied and were not enforced strictly. A slave’s fate rested on his master and most slaves were treated harshly. They could be punished by flogging or branding if they tried to run away or resist. Major offences committed by slaves like one slave killing another were referred to court.
The daily routine of a slave was regulated by his master. The head of the administration was the owner. If he was a small planter, direct supervision of the slaves was carried out. If the planter was a medium or large planter, an overseer and an assistant were hired for example if the planter was involved in politics fulltime, the planter owned large estates or needed the help. The slave drivers or the foremen were usually slaves themselves and could have sub slave drivers etc. The methods for making the slaves work were of two types-the task system where the task to be done by the slave could be done in as much time as it took in a day and this was used for rice production or the gang system where slaves worked as groups with slave drivers and they worked for a specific number of hours decided upon by the overseer and was used for the growing of sugar, cotton and tobacco.
The physical condition of the slave was supported by an adequate rough diet of corn mill, salt pork and molasses and the slaves were encouraged to grow their own garden. Fresh meals could be issued on special occasions. Slaves started working early in life with light work, which increased as they grew. Their workday was often as long as northern farmers with time off to hunt, fish, attend church and other social activities of the white family. They wore cheap clothes and shoes and lived in log cabins or slave quarters. Their medical care was looked after by the mistress of the house.
Generally the conditions of the house servants were much better than the badly exploited field hands. Slaves could be privileged butlers, nurses, skilled craftsmen and filed workers.
It may be pointed out here that according to figures, very few people actually owned slaves. In the 1860s, of the total population of 8 million people of the south, only 4.3% owned slaves. Of this miniscule numbers, most people had around 2-9 slaves. In the 1830s, for the first time, political and intellectual leaders began to opine that slavery was not an evil but a good and it should be regarded as a permanent institution. This proslavery propaganda was accompanied by a hardening of public sentiment. The support of the south for the institution of slavery came not just from the whites who owned slaves. They were supported by the white population of the south who saw slaves as an inferior race and this fed their sense of superiority. They also feared competition from freed slaves for their trades.
The economic viability of slavery is a debatable issue. Slavery as an efficient labor system was not feasible, as the slaves did not have enough compulsion to do more than would be extracted from them by force. Slavery made the south?s economic system less flexible and progressive. The success of plantation agriculture hindered the growth of a more diversified economy. The reluctance of white men to work as a free labor force due to the social stigma attached to it meant that the economy never progressed beyond the rural character to industrialization uniformly. Huge profits were made by businessmen at the expense of the planters who were often indebted to the merchants both of the south and the north.
Causes Of The Civil War
Economic
Charles Bearde gives economic issues like the high tariff, the homestead law and the transcontinental railroad as the causes of the civil war. The high tariff issue has always been a bone of contention between the north and the south. The primary source of federal revenues until the outbreak of the civil war was duties imposed on imports. This taxation gave protection to internal industries against foreign competition, which favored the north as they had the maximum of industries. Acts like the embargo act and the non-intercourse act encouraged the growth of manufacturing in the north. The south not anticipating any major developments were strongly opposed to protectionist measures. They also believed that the high tariffs increased the prices of their imports and restricted the market for their exports. This issue brought the north supported by the western states in conflict with the southern states.
The immense land acquired by the government by the end of the Mexican war was to be distributed according to the homestead law. The north favored the giving away of land at a cheap price to the common people while the south wanted the land to be given to the highest bidder so that plantation land could be expanded. According to the homestead law, any person was given 160 acres of land, which he had to cultivate for 5 years and he paid a small fee on the acquiring of land. The law was criticized by the south, as their aim of extending plantation style agriculture was defeated.
Trans continental railroads were to be built with federal aid across the American land. The north and the west were unanimous in their support to the building of the railroad, as it would greatly benefit their development. The south did not see any benefit to them and refused to pay taxes for something that they said they did not need.
These economic causes have been criticised as the tariffs were not always high except in 1816, 1828 and 1832 and was usually lower. Also when the markets for southern goods declined in Europe and the south turned to local markets, the railroads were supported by them as well.
Westward expansion
In 1819, there were 22 states in the American union, 11 of which were free states and 11 were slave states. Due to the increase of population in the free states, their representation in the house of representation was greater than that of the slave states. But in the senate, where every state had a single vote, a balance was maintained between the slave states and the free states. To maintain this balance, admission of new states was usually done in pairs as far as possible with a free state entering the union along with a slave state. Many compromises were made like the Missouri compromise of 1820. This compromise meant that the states above the 36?30′ were to be given the status of a free state and the states below this line were to be slave states. This became the center of controversy later on as its repeal further widened the schism between the north and the south.
Texas was admitted as a slave state when after vacillation the American union was not admitting it, they applied to Britain and this worried the Americans enough to allow Texas to enter the union unaccompanied by a free state. The ending of the Mexican war resulted in Texas asking for more territory, which the northerners were against, as it would mean the extension of slavery. The fact that the capital of the country still had slavery was according to the north a disgrace. The north-south rift grew when many northern organizations helped fugitive slaves to escape to Canada. The question of whether the congress had the authority to decide if slavery should be allowed or not was very worrying and which led to the controversial Dredscott?s decision. The Wilmot proviso saying that areas acquired from the Mexican war should be free states was opposed by the south.
Clays compromise, fugitive slave act, the Kansas-Nebraska act.
Slavery- describe the institution of slavery, ?slavery as a cause of the civil war? tutorial.
One can conclude that though slavery was not the sole cause of the civil war, the issue of slavery was both an important factor in the sectionalism, which was one of the reasons for the war, and it symbolized and disguised many other differences between the north and the south.
Political Causes
Ever since the federal convention in 1787, there had been a tacit political balance between the 2 great sections along the old Mason-Dixon line and the Ohio River, which divided the slave holding states and territories from which slavery was abolished and in the process of extension. Ever since the birth of the nation, a series of compromises had held the 2 sections together. At the time of framing of the constitution, the conflict was settled by deciding the percent of representation to the House of Representatives and accordingly only three-fifths of the black population would be taken into account and the senate would have equal representation from all the states irrespective of size of population.
This system worked well so long as the number of free and slave states remained equal but at the close of 1819, when the territories of Missouri and Maine applied for statehood, tension between the 2 sections mounted again on the grounds of whether they should be admitted as free or slave states which was resolved by the Missouri compromise of 1820.
By the late 1840s, the sectional conflict was beginning to affect national political parties. The Whig party was split into those who opposed slavery openly and those who supported it because of their trade with the southern planters and the latter had powerful backing from the south.
The democrat party was becoming more and more an instrument of the south. The northern democrats became resentful of the pro-south leaning of the party and this led too their joining with the abolitionist Whigs to form the Republican Party in 1854.
The problem of slavery in the new territories was reopened in 1848 when Oregon, California, new Mexico and Utah needed to be admitted to the union. The Missouri compromise was unacceptable to the both the northern and southern extremists. This issue was avoided in the election of 1848 when the Whig party?s Zachary Taylor was elected as president. The emergence of the free soiler party, which polled enough votes to ruin the chances of the Democratic Party, is important in this election.
The question of admitting California and New Mexico had to be resolved but the situation became more difficult when California adopted a constitution in 1849 by which it became a free state and in 1850, the people of New Mexico did the same. Henry clay tried to introduce a compromise which would solve the above problem as well as the problem of slavery in Washington D.C., the boundary between Texas and new Mexico, the war expenditure of Texas which was not being assumed by the government and the personal liberty law and how it was to be applied to the fugitive slaves.
Clays compromise was greatly discussed and debated and finally accepted in 1850 with many concessions to the south. California was admitted as a free stat, New Mexico was organized as a territory when Texas relinquished control over it in return for $3 million as the war debt. Utah was organized as a territory. Slave trade in Washington D.C. was abolished and in return the north had to enact a stringent fugitive slave act by which a Negro accused of being a fugitive was denied his day in court and his status was to be determined by a united states judge or a circuit court commissioner who would usually be bribed. Federal marshals had to do their best to catch fugitive slaves and any citizen who helped a fugitive would be heavily penalized.
Though this compromise solved the immediate problems of the nation, it did not stem the crisis of secession of 1860.
The transcontinental railroad problem was another issue, which showed the sectionalism rife in the United States.
There was a widespread desire for sectional harmony after the Missouri compromise of 1820 and this was evident in the election of 1852. The democrats reaffirmed the compromise and nominated a dark horse, Franklin pierce of New Hampshire to break a deadlock over the selection of leaders. The Whigs were weaker in the defense of the compromise in comparison and lost when they nominated Winfield Scott. The decline in the anti-slavery feeling was obvious when the free soil party?s votes dropped dramatically from their maiden election of 1848.
Nicaragua and Honduras- the pierce administration of 1853-1857 pursued an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy, which was mainly for the benefit of the south. Southerners were very interested in acquiring Cuba where slavery was legal and the government was negotiating for its sale to America by Spain. Though this failed, it was publicized and the northerners thought that the southerners were trying to acquire a new slave state and insisted that there was a southern conspiracy. Southerners were also interested in areas in the South American continent where slave states might be carved out. A southern adventurer, William walker led an expedition to Nicaragua in 1855, where he was dictator for some time and tried to raid Honduras as well. All these incidents were seen by the northerners as a move by the southerners to extend slavery and avoid abolition.
*The expansion of American business was spreading from an early time. In 1819 missionaries went to Hawaii where they established connections, which later helped in annexation. In 1830, china was being opened up and commercial treaties were being signed. In 1853, commodore Perry led a naval expedition to Japan, which led to the signing of a commercial treaty.
In the Canadian border, there was a conflict between England and America over the fishing rights of the Americans. In 1854, the problem was solved through the reciprocal treaty, which gave the privilege to Canadians for passage of goods from and to the United States without the custom duties in exchange for American fishing rights. *
The transcontinental railroad question was also being discussed and the route for the railroad was to be decided. The northerners wanted a northern route for the railroad, which would run through Chicago or st. Louis while the south wanted a route through New Orleans along the Mexican border till Los Angeles. In 1854, senator Douglas (Ill.) presented the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which recommended the repeal of the Missouri compromise with the issue of slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty in the new regions to be created- Kansas and Nebraska.
This bill was strongly backed by the pierce administration and was passed despite huge opposition and hostile public opinion. The bill did not specify when popular sovereignty should be applied to the territory. While the southerners felt that slavery should be allowed and only when admission was sought, then popular sovereignty should be exercised, Douglas believed that the first settlers should decide and that the earliest elections were important. Utah, New Mexico and Nebraska were not being discussed by the southerners as possible slave states because the region was too arid. But Kansas was situated close to the slave state of Missouri and the soil was suited to slavery.
Northern anti-slavery states set up aid societies to help northerners to settle in Kansas hoping to make it a free state. The settlers were mainly against both slavery and slaves and had no sympathies with either the abolitionists or the southerners.
In the election of 1855 in Kansas, many Missourians came and voted for slavery electing pro slavery candidates. The government formed was pro slavery and supported by the pierce administration. While the abolitionists formed their own government and drafted a free state constitution, the pro slavery government established a slave state and drafted a constitution.