Industry vs Agriculture: The Economics Leading to the Civil War

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Patrick Finnegan

February 9, 2010

Industry vs Agriculture: The Economics Leading to the Civil War

  1. Opening Statement (Emily Boney)

The basis of this argument is founded upon the fact that Northern states (The Union) was an industrial society and supported tariffs on imported goods from Europe because they wanted Americans to buy goods made in the United States. The Southern culture, however, was to buy things made in Europe, therefore they were against these tariffs.

  1. Introduction
  1. Ladies and gentlemen of the court, today my team and I will defend the theory that the Civil War began due to economic differences between the North and the South.

  1. Thesis: The North and South were divided primarily by issues regarding slavery, tariffs and differences in industry.

  1. Reason for guilt
  1. Slavery: North was against slavery, South was for it. Buying and selling slaves large part of Southern economy, depended on slaves to produce cotton. (Economics of the Civil War)
  2. Tariffs: North liked tariffs, people bought American. South disliked tariffs, wanted luxury goods from Europe. North tried to impose tariffs on South, tariffs alone were one of the main reasons for Southern secession. (476)
  3. Different economies: South = cotton agriculture, North = industry and factories (Economics of the Civil War).

iv.         Weaknesses in other trials

  1. Slavery separate issue: actually part of the economy.
  2. Different economies more part of the culture: culture defined by economy.

  1. Expert Testimony (Lexy Davis)

Professor of history at the University of Harvard. Studied economics as well as United States History at the University of California Berkeley. Completed an internship in which she taught a class about the catalysts of the civil war.

Q: As a historian and a well rounded individual what are your thoughts on what led to the civil war.

A: It is evident that the Northern and Southern regions had contrasting economies which created tension between the two regions who felt the need to defend their economic systems.

Q: What exactly were the two economic systems?

A: The South had an economy based on agriculture by means of slave labor. On the other hand, the North had an industrial economy that depended on the working class for their success as they found slavery illegal (Economics and the Civil War).

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Q: Could you please elaborate on that?
A: The affects of the industrial revolution were now surfacing, but mostly in the North.  While both the South and the North had factories the North had an exceedingly larger amount of industrial manufacturing in comparison. The South was found to have about 25 % of the country's free population, but only 10% of the country's capital in the year of 1860. In contrast, the North had five times the number of factories as the South as well as over ten times the number of factory workers in their possession (Economics and the Civil War).

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