Civil War Causes

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The Causes Of The Civil War
Melody Su
G Block
There is no doubt that The Civil War was one of the most significant events in American history.
When we try to figure out the direct causes of the war, most may argue that it was the election of 1860, when Republican candidate Lincoln, who supported the abolition of slavery, was elected. Then the southern states declared their independence while the northern states, on the grounds of maintaining unity of the federal government, started the long and brutal civil war. If we take a closer look at the election of 1860, it is noticeable that Lincoln won only 39.8% of the popular votes in the 1860 presidential election. In most northern states, Lincoln won approximately 50% to 60% of the votes, while …show more content…
With the invention of cotton gins, cotton growing became a very profitable industry. Commercial cotton could now be grown on most of the land in the South. In Slave Productivity in Cotton Production written by Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode, “In the plantation sector, females and males performed essentially equal shares of the picking work.” From this,we can interpret that, compared to other crops, cotton production was low in labor intensity and could be done by both men and women. The sex ratio of the slaves in the plantation is relatively even and the mortality rate is very low. More, “In 1860 there were nearly four million slaves and their average market value was around $800”, which was equivalent in purchasing power to $22,975.49 in 2018. Therefore, although the South could keep slaves, most of them could not afford slaves. “In 1860, the number of slaveholders that owned no slaves were 1,605,116, which was 80.66% of the entire population.” Most slaves and the ensuing wealth were not distributed evenly. As the total number of slaves increased, the efficiency of production increased even faster, and the profits from the cultivation and production of cotton rose even higher. As a result, massive amount of money was concentrated by the planters in the South. By then, they were the richest people in the United States. Due to the huge profits of the plantation economy, South gradually got richer, however, it did …show more content…
In 1829, as Andrew Jackson came to power, the American politics began a new era. The Democratic Party in which Andrew Jackson was in, supported the rights of the states, which was the rights of the southern states to maintain slavery. In the meantime, the Democratic Party continued supporting the rights of immigrants. Regardless of Catholic Protestantism, it has become a protector of the lowest-status people in society. The Democratic Party's position of emphasizing moral self-determination was unacceptable to the Northern
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