YO, CONFEDERATES!!WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

THE ECONOMIC MYSTERYIN LIGHT OF ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES OF THE NORTH OVER THE SOUTH, IT SEEMS

IN RETROSPECT ALMOST IRRATIONAL FOR THE SOUTH TO HAVE ENGAGED THE

NORTH MILITARILY.

WHY DID THE SOUTH SECEDE?

ECONOMIC CONCEPTS: ALTERNATIVES, BENEFITS, COSTS

WAS THE SOUTH IRRATIONAL TO FIGHT THE CIVIL WAR?IN GO DOWN, MOSES (1942), WILLIAM

FAULKNER WROTE:

WHO ELSE WOULD HAVE DECLARED A WAR AGAINST A POWER WITH 10 TIMES THE AREA, 100 TIMES THE MEN, AND 1,000

TIMES THE RESOURCES?

ADVANTAGES OF THE NORTHThe North had a population of 22 millionThe South had a population of 9 million,

which included 3.5 million slaves.The North had 92% of the nation’s industriesThe North had 22,000 miles of railroad track.

The South had 9000The North controlled the U.S. Navy and the

Merchant Marine

ADVANTAGES OF THE SOUTHThe South had a clear war objective-to win

independence.The South needed to fight only to defend its

territory. The North had to carry out an invasion.

The South had a strong military tradition. Many U.S. Army and Navy officers had been recruited from the South. Great arsenals and army bases were located in the South.

The South believed that its cotton trade with Great Britain and France would cause these nations to provide aid to the Confederacy.

IT IS HARDLY SURPRISING THAT SOUTHERN SLAVEOWNERS WERE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE ECONOMIC FUTURE OF THEIR REGION

Table 1The Fraction of Whites' Incomes from Slavery

State Percent of the Population That Were Slaves

Per Capita Earnings of Free Whites (in dollars)

Slave Earnings per Free White (in dollars)

Fraction of Earnings Due to Slavery

Alabama 45 120 50 41.7

South Carolina 57 159 57 35.8

Florida 44 143 48 33.6

Georgia 44 136 40 29.4

Mississippi 55 253 74 29.2

Louisiana 47 229 54 23.6

Texas 30 134 26 19.4

Seven Cotton States 46 163 50 30.6

North Carolina 33 108 21 19.4

Tennessee 25 93 17 18.3

Arkansas 26 121 21 17.4

Virginia 32 121 21 17.4

All 11 States 38 135 35 25.9

Source: Computed from data in Gerald Gunderson (1974: 922, Table 1)

By the mid 1830s, cotton shipments accounted for more than half the value of all exports from the United States. Note that there is a marked similarity between the trends in the export of cotton and the rising value of the slave population depicted in Figure 1.

ELIMINATING SLAVERY: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES AND THEIR PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES

Emancipation of the slaves by the owners without compensation

Emancipation of the slaves, with compensation paid to the slave owners by the federal government

Go to war to maintain or to eliminate slavery

WAS COMPROMISE POSSIBLE? The Missouri Compromise of 1820

admitted Missouri and Maine to the Union. Missouri was a slave state and Maine was a free state.

This dual admission allowed the nation to preserve the existing balance between slave states and free states.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 overrode the Missouri Compromise.

It authorized voters in portions of the Louisiana Purchase to decide whether or not to permit slavery.

In the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in any U.S. territories.