Civil War of 1861-1865 in Texas - Research Paper Example

Civil war of 1861-1865 in the of Texas The civil wars of the mid-19th century in the union s have had a bearing on what the United States of America has become today. Most importantly the civil war had an enormous impact on the southern state of the union, Texas being one of the most hit. Before focusing on the political and socio-economic implications of the war, it’s important to get a clear understanding of what the war was all about, the factions involved and what brought it to an end. In 1845, the state of Texas had joined the union of states, a move that they worked so hard to pull off. Texas had its ideals and overall goals aligned with those of the unionist until the Republican party leaders started criticizing most of the southern institutionsi. Some of the issues that the north and the south did not see eye to eye on included; slave trade, trade with England and export tariffs. Most Texas inhabitants did not own slaves but did have the same view as their southerners of non-abolition of the slave trade by the federal congressii. They believed that that was a privy of the state and not of Congress. During this time, the Union states were considering between staying in the union or secession and joining the Confederacy of the South. Texas was not the 1st state to pull out, but its pull out led to the actual break of the four-year war. During the time of Texas secession, President Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated in office (February 15, 1861). The union government under President Lincoln said that the southern states did not have a right to leave the union in a manner that they leftiii. Most of the states in the south had left to confederate as shown by image 1. The federal government maintained that the union had authority over them. Texas on the other hand wanted the union military out of Texas and took the step of raiding the union’s military bases, and this was the beginning of the war. There were significant differences between the southern states (Texas) and their northern counterparts that made the initial attempts of unification a non-smooth sail. The first and the most important was their different economic structures. The northern states were industrialists; they had developed textile industries among others, while the lower states were agriculturalists, farmed cash crops and kept livestockiv. This was the primary reason as to why the Texans were opposed to the abolishing of the slave trade. Though as indicated earlier most families did not own slaves, but they depended on the slaves to till their land and heard the animals. It is estimated that, at the time of this conflict the slave trade business was worth in estimations about $105 million, much larger than the cotton growing industryv. Secondly Texas felt that the federal government did not stand with were during its problems which included the attacks by the Indians, raids on Texas to steal slaves and other banditry within the state. The other reasons for the conflicts revolved around the 10th amendment of the American constitution. This included; the trade and the trade tariffs that the federal government imposed on export trade with England to boost local trade, the southern states were of the view that the federal government had infringed on the states’ rights on issues of slavery and export tariffsvi. The impact of this war on Texas took a dimension that was not experienced in other states. The actual war was not fought in Texas, the main reason being the Union troops were unable to maneuver their way into the interior of the state. Nevertheless, the impact was still felt. During the war, Texas had to send soldiers to the battling field, leaving a void back at home. The population of the Union states was way too many and outnumbered the opponents, thus women in Texas had to double up and undertake the roles of the menvii. Some women had to tender to farms, heard animals, some took up jobs as teachers and nurses in the local area. This had a significant social impact on the population of Texas. During this civil war, that the South were already losing the casualties of war to Texas was too big, most families lost a member or two to the war. Young children were forced to mature early and picked up responsibilities that they would ordinarily not handle. Finally, there was a lot of hostility in Texas among them, and this resulted from the division of loyalty among Texans to the Union States and the Confederacy states. For instance among the Texans were the Texans of German origin. The Germans were against slavery; however, there were some who had settled and bought some slaves for themselves and as such they supported the Confederacy. This hostility to each other made life in Texas especially for union supporters very hard. This war also took a big swing at Texas economy as demonstrated by graph 1. During the war, the Union forces took control of the routes to the river Mississippi chocking Texas of its trade channels, in an operation called anaconda. This made it impossible for Texas to trade. Furthermore, the war caused a decline in Texas trading partners such as England this resulted in a fall in demand for Texas cash crop business. People now redirected their efforts toward food crop that its demand now was on a steady rise. However, most of the food produced found their way into the fighting camps rather than to the town for trade this affected the economy even more. Most of the Texas workforce and resources were channeled towards making arms, in fact, Texas during this time built factories for ammunitions and produced roughly 800 firearms per month. As the war progressed more and more slaves were freed this left few people to work on the farms this in turn further affected agricultural production. The northern forces did not allow any supplies into the Texas state starving them of essential supplies such as medicine, clothing, salt, paper and coffee. There were political impacts too, to begin with; Texans were forced to fight their country mates on both sides due to their divided loyalty. A case in time was the governor of Texas at the time Samson Huston, who supported the Union forces, and due to the overwhelming vote to secede by the people of Texas, he decided to retire to his home where he later died. This war brought these divisions and pitched one against the other based on their political view of the matter. The Conscription Act was born as a result of the warviii, all boys were expected to join the war without choice. There also emerged fights between the slaves of Texas and their masters. Freeing slaves was one of the agendas of this war, and slaves were by default allied to the Union forces, resulting to fighting with people with whom they have lived most of their lives together. The end of this war also came with its impacts. June 19th, 1865 the civil war in America came to an end in Texas; this was one month after other southern states had surrendered to the Union. President Abraham Lincoln steered the civil war against the Confederate States. He was killed one week after the war was over by John Wilkes Booth. However, his efforts to reconstruct the country after the war were continued with his successor President Johnson. As a result of the war Texas found themselves under a new era, and they were not happy about it. They were in short supply of free labor, agricultural production went down, transport was disrupted and they had to build from scratch. This was not all, the federal government imposed the martial law in Texas and had the federal police come to Texas to keep the peace. The state of Texas is forced to adopt the 1876 constitution and accept to free all slaves, give equal rights to all peoples irrespective of their race and to give the black people a right to voteix. As a result of these changes tenant farming and sharecropping emerged as a way of life in Texas. As a result of compliance with the federal government’s demands, the rail road was expanded in to Texas, the cattle industry grew and it further led to people moving into Texas and settling. There were some people who were not happy with this changes and worked within the means of the law to introduce segregation among the races (Jim Crow laws). This laws recognized the freedom of the black people but restricted them from being severed in the same restaurants, or getting treatments from the same hospitals as the whites. This was however the marking of an end and the beginning of a new era in the state of Texas. APPENDIX 1 EXHIBITS Graph 1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_war_finance NOTE: This graph shows the economic state of the southern states, assuming inflation as an indicator. It demonstrates the effect of the war on the economy. Image 1- http://www.crossroadsofwar.org/discover-the-story/the-coming-storm/the-coming-storm-full-story/ NOTE: Shows the confederacy states against the Union states, indicating the south states interest in slave trade. Read More