Events that Led to the Civil War: Slavery as an Economic Engine Not a Moal Isssue

[Rhondazvous]

Two things were going on that made the American Civil War necessary. Although abolitionist groups were busy at this time, freeing the slaves on moral grounds was not a primary factor. The two primary factors were in fact, the westward expansion of the United States and the widespread use of the cotton gin.

Now some of you have already dismissed me out of hand for suggesting that the cotton gin started the CW. But bear with me and you may find that what I’m saying is not that simple and not that far-fetched.

For a while, slavery was dying out. It just wasn’t cost effective. The cotton gin had been around for a while, but when its commercial use became widespread, labor-intensive plantations sprung up. The cotton gin allowed the south to produce a significant percentage of the cotton used in the textile mills of Great Britain. This meant the economy of the south was viable enough for it to stand on its own. Neither the south nor England liked having to go through the north as the cotton exchange middle man.

At the same time, the United States was expanding westward. The north did not want to have slavery in the new western states because it would take jobs away from white men. On the other hand, the south feared that a proliferation of free states in the west would tip the balance of power in Washington, allowing the north to impose heavy tariffs on cotton and other crops produced in the south and shipped to Europe.

Lincoln followed his Republican party line and opposed slavery in the west for the above stated reasons. This made it easy for the south to label him the anti-slavery candidate, and when he won the election, South Carolina was the first state to suceed in December 1860.

Thus the newly elected Lincoln had to go to war. Great Britain was the industrial capital of the world. If the north had to trade with the south as a separate nation, that would leave the north with no viable economic engine. The war officially started on April 12, 1861 when Confederate soldiers bombed Union soldiers at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Clearly, hostilities began well before the “official start of the war” or else why were there Confederate soldiers and Union soldiers and why did the Union army have a fort on Confederate territory?

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, more than a year after the war started. This was a brilliant military strategy that had nothing to do with the president’s moral stance on slavery. He is quoted to have said that he didn’t care if the slaves were free or not as long as the union was held together.

This is what happened. The union navy had been blocading southern ships taking cotton to Great Britain, thus weakening the southern economy and causing what was called the “cotton famine” in England. British ship boulders then built ships that could break the blockade. Lincoln countered by shipping over 13,000 barrels of flour to Great Britain, thus endearing himself to unemployed mill workers and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation which not only appeased the abolitionist factions in England but was also designed to lure slaves away from the south to serve the north.

One question remains. Since the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the states that had rebelled, how did it come about that at the end of the war, all the slaves were freed? Interesting question. We could explore this together. Anybody care to shed light on this?