Soil Exhaustion as a Major Contributing Leading to the American Civil War - Essay Example

In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which made cotton extremely profitable. The success of the cotton gin facilitated the separation of the South and the North by fostering slavery. Economic differences between the South and the North, which started in 1798 led to the eruption of the civil war in 1861. The Southern economy depended solely on cotton. The Northern industries were buying raw cotton from the South and processing it to finished products. The civil war was a war in which industrial strength and technology played a significant role (McNeese 6). The North had developed an increasingly industrialized mixed economy while the South developed the agricultural economy. From 1800 to 1861, there were high percentages of slaves in the South than in the North. During this period, there were slave rebellions; most of the slaves were captured and executed (McNeese 7).

Southern states kept government spending and taxation at low levels due to high debts as compared to the North. Southerners were incapable of supporting education as compared to the Northerners. Illiteracy was widespread in the South; in 1850, 20 percent of all white adults in the Southern states were illiterate. In the North, illiteracy was less than one percent. Though slavery was profitable, it contributed to soil exhaustion, lack of technological innovation, and high debts. Soil exhaustion and erosion diminished cotton land availability.

Planters enlarged their holdings, and as a result, they pushed off yeomen farmers from the land. Congress increased tariffs in 1828 with the Tariff of Abominations. The tariffs were aimed at supporting the U.S. industry; these tariffs benefited the Northern industrial economy while damaging the Southern agricultural economy.

From 1827 to 1861, slavery was abolished in New York, the District of Columbia, and the British Empire. In 1833, the Compromise Tariff Act was passed to reduce tariffs of concern in the Southern states; it averted the confrontation. In 1851, Congress modified the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793; this strengthened the Act to allow slaveholders to retrieve slaves in free territories and Northern states. In 1854, Congress approved the Kansas –Nebraska Act that overturned the Missouri Compromise thus opening the Northern territory to slavery. In November 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected as the American president and inaugurated in March 1861. The Southern states claimed that the government-assisted southern slaves made them leave the states. In December 1860, Major General Anderson moved his troops to Ft. Sumter from Ft. Moultrie, South Carolina (McNeese 9).

In February 1861, the Provisional Constitution of the Confederacy was adopted in Montgomery, Alabama. Jefferson Davis was voted as the President of the Confederacy. In 1861, various states seceded from the Union including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. In March 1861, the Confederate Congress authorized an army of volunteers. In April 1861, the war began when the Confederates fired South Carolina’s Ft. Sumter. During the civil war allegiance of Mexican Americans, especially those living in Texas were deeply divided. Some Mexican Americans joined the troops for the Confederacy, while others voluntarily joined the Union army. Texas territory contributed to Mexican – American war (McNees 12).