Posted: 5/27/2017
Trigger
Just read this excellent, but old and very long article https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/was-the-south-poor-before-the-war/
This dated article describes at length why the ante bellum southern states were very rich; had a significant, broad, affluent middle class; and enjoyed economic prosperity very comparable or even better than the northern states.
Purpose
Victors of war rewrite history to suit their purpose. This was no different with the American Civil War!
Anyone familiar with my blog posts, realizes that I am very critical of the necessity of this total American Civil War (slavery was a pretense, secession was the cause) and how very much overrated President Lincoln is, who failed to stop or quickly end this enormous, senseless bloodshed. Slavery would have disappeared anyway without this terrible war. Slavery was already doomed in most western countries at the time, even in Russia.
Even buying all slaves and grant them freedom would have been so much cheaper and more civilized!
Some Salient Quotes
Quotes & Comments (emphasis added):
- “... Numerous books on Southern history speak of such terms as “the slaveholding dynasty,” the “proud Southern ‘barons,'” and others.[34] Cairnes titled his polemic The Slave Power. Northerners resented the perceived Southern political dominance of the country.[35] Southern wealth undoubtedly produced jealously and resentment on the part of many Northern people. Coupled with the political power of the South and the arguments of the Republican Party, there was ample incentive for Northerners to want to clip the wings of the slaveholders, to reduce their power and even their affluence. ...”
- “Cairnes quotes Lord Sterling in Letters from the Slave States as saying “for all practical purposes we may still regard Southern society as consisting of aristocratic planters and ‘white trash’””
[If you ever wondered where the expression “white trash” comes from and how far it dates back and that is was e.g. a British nobleman who used it. John E. Cairnes was a widely respected British economist of the classical kind.] - “On the other “hand, Southern wealth and prosperity helps explain-why the Southern states were so bold as to secede and so confident that they could successfully establish an Independent nation. The depth of that wealth, its extension throughout society on a close par with the North, helps explain why the masses of Southerners supported secession and the Confederacy.”
- “Per capita wealth in Southern States ranged from over $2,000 in Mississippi and South Carolina to under $600 in only one. The per capita wealth of only Connecticut and New Jersey in the North and Oregon on the Pacific rose above $700 and one state, Kansas, fell below $300. Twelve Southern states had per capita wealth above $800 while there were no Northern states so wealthy.
Even should all the slaves be counted as potential wealth-holders, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina would remain as the nation’s wealthiest states. Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas would join them as more affluent than any Northern state except Connecticut. Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware would be wealthier than New York, and North Carolina, Florida, and Missouri would be richer than New Hampshire, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.”
Cotton Was King
During the ongoing industrial revolution, most of British cotton imports came from the southern states. This was big business in its time. To prevent it, Lincoln quickly imposed the naval blockade on southern ports etc.
That the UK and other countries quickly declared the Confederates as belligerent. “Great Britain declared belligerent status on May 13, 1861, followed by Spain on June 17 and Brazil on August 1. This was the first glimpse of failure for the Confederate South” (source)
Previous, Related Blog Posts
American Civil War
Abraham Lincoln
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