The American Civil War

I. What They Fought For

A. The South

1. For Their “Homeland”--many (perhaps most) poor whites saw the mobilization of Union troops as an “invasion” (or threat of invasion) of their homeland. Many people at this time felt that their first obligation of allegiance was to their state (which they considered their homeland), rather than to the United States.

a) Robert E. Lee-- “With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope that I may never be called upon to draw my sword ...”



2. Continued Expansion of Slavery--the main point of contention was the continued expansion of slavery, which slaveholders in the South saw as necessary for the continuation of the institution.

a) Even though only a small percentage of Southerners owned slaves--and an even smaller percentage owned more than 10 slaves--slavery was the means for white economic advancement, and a number of poor whites would have seen the possibility of sometime in the future being able to exploit the labor of slaves as a possible means for them to gain access to wealth (“Joe the Plumber?”)

b) Slavery in the South was not only a way to organize labor, but also an important social institution; it gave poor whites someone to look down upon, someone to dominate. Poor whites made up an important component of the slave patrols, and could therefore order slaves around who were not under their master’s immediate control; a Southern version of the “Wages of Whitemess.”



B. The North

1. To Save the Union--this was the states purpose, especially in the months after the volunteers from the South Carolina militia fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender; this mobilized tens of thousands of volunteers.


2. To End the Expansion of Slavery--many people in the North advocated a “free labor” ideology (“Free Labor, Free Soil, Free Men” was an early slogan of the Republican Party). To define oneself as an advocate of free labor, one needed an antithesis-- “slave labor,” which was highly undesirable.

a) The Slave Power--the slaveholding bloc held much political power in Washington. Eight of the first sixteen presidents owned slaves while they were in office--including 5 of the first 8. Because of the “3/5ths Clause” of the Constitution (each slave counted as 3/5ths of a person for electoral purposes), the South had more than their share of Representatives (since slaves were not voters). The Missouri Compromise of 1820, while limiting the spread of slavery above the Mason-Dixon line, also created the practice of pairing the admissions of slave and free states, maintaining the status quo and granting the slave states de facto veto power in the Senate, where they could filibuster any undesirable legislation.


b) Slave states used this veto power to keep taxes low (surprising to us today, the Democratic Party was the party of low taxes and free trade, while the Republicans--and their antecedents, the Whigs--were the party of higher taxes and protective tariffs)--which frustrated northern attempts to build infrastructure (particularly a transcontinental railroad), and to stave off passage of the hugely popular Morrill Act (authorizing the sale of public lands to finance agricultural/industrial universities in each state) and the Homestead Act--neither of which passes until 1862.


c) Abraham Lincoln was the personification of the Northern striver identifying with the Free Soil/Free Labor ideology. Born and spent early childhood in Kentucky, but father was frustrated with lack of opportunities for non-slaveholders; moved family to Indiana, and then to Illinois. Lincoln hated farm work, attempted to become a small businessman, then a more successful attempt at becoming lawyer. Moved into politics as a member of the Whig Party, but grow frustrated with that party’s seeming status as the permanent political underdog. Went back to law, became very successful railroad lawyer. Drawn back into politics as a result of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which abbrogated the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and left the question of the expansion of slavery to “popular sovereignty.”

II. Two Economies



A. Slave Economy of the South

1. Colonial slavery--driven by the cultivation of tobacco and provisioning sugar plantations in the Caribbean.


2. The Cotton Gin--this simple invention made the cultivation of short staple cotton profitable, and resulted in transforming the institution of slavery from dying a slow death, as the Founding Fathers expected while debating the Constitution, to its revitalization and expansion into the newly acquired Southwest Territory (western Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana).


3. King Cotton--the industrialization of the textile trade increased the demand for cotton, which encouraged its cultivation and the demand for labor to carry this out--which led to the spread of slavery to the original Southwest. The spread of slavery meant limited opportunities for poor white men in the region, while making large plantation owners exceedingly wealthy

a) Encouraged plantation owners to spend this wealth on luxury goods in exchange for selling their cotton to British textile mills (as well as those mills being built in the northeastern part of the United States, where industrialization developed in this country earliest). This led southern politicians (who were often also southern plantation owners) to become advocates of low tariffs (“free trade”). Northern politicians, on the other hand, advocated high tariffs on imported goods, so that the goods they produced could be competitively priced--and allow these new industries to develop.



B. Free Labor Economy in the North--while income disparity was almost severe in the North as it was in the South, but the Northern economic system created more opportunities for economic advancement for the middle and lower classes than the Southern system of slavery did.

1. Industrialization of the economy--although most people lived on farms, the industrial concerns in the growing cities of the North became an increasingly important engine driving the economy in that region.




a) The McCormick Reaper--invented in western Virginia by Cyrus McCormick, but it was manufactured in Chicago--because McCormick saw that city being closer to the potential market for the product.



2. Free Labor, Free Soil--the market for farm implements was greater in the North, in part because there were not slaves to perform the labor, and the competition for labor with industries in the cities meant that northern farmers were receptive to using these new machines.


3. Free Men--the larger middle class in the North also created a larger--if less profitable--market for goods, which in turn provided the impetus for more goods to be produced.