How Did The American Civil War Impact On Northern Life

The American Civil War, from 1861-1865, manifested one of the most everlasting changes in American history. Drastically changing the country economically and politically leading to the virtual reconstruction of a growing nation, which lead us to the nation, we know today as the United States of America. From the Southern point of view, this war was a War of Rebellion/ Independence from the Northern point of view this war was seen as a revolution.

This unfortunate war started as a result of many years of differences between the Union and the Confederacy. It erupted after many years of conflict about economic, social, and political problems building up between the two regions. The war's impact on northern living was a positive one, profiting

Some examples of this would be the Southern economy opposing high taxes, as manufacturing was inadequate where as in the Northern states they welcomed high taxes to protect its products from cheap foreign competition from Europe. As a result, the South preferred not to accept most improvements that were made by the federal government, such as roads and canals, in order to keep taxes low. Slavery also had become vital to the Southern way of life, agriculture was depended upon the most and all available funds were used to preserve it, also it was preventing development in other industries. African slaves, once paid for, were owned for life and all their children became slaves. This served to firmly establish slavery as a cheap and effective labor source for the Southern plantation owners. Eventually, the southern plantation owners went into debt to the northern traders for the transportation of slaves, and as a result a general dislike of Northerner's grew in the Southern states. Another major problem that occurred was the competition between the North and South for more land. Both

Socially, the North and the South were built on different principles. The South, or the Slave States, was a slave-based community that followed a class-based system. This system consisted of high class, middle class, and then slavery. Many depended on slaves and were comfortable to this way of life; to them this way of life was too hard to change. Plantation owners had slaves working for them but for those who could not afford to own slaves they themselves would work their own farm. The Northern free states had more immigrants settling in its areas from various places, where labor was needed, but did not believe in the use of slaves. Hence it had a more developed culture where most people worked in factories, and they did not follow a class system. The Northerners did not agree to the use of slaves in Southern states, as the Confederate States were still the only region in the world that the ownership of slaves was still legal. This point of view from the north aggravated the Southerners and it also threatened their way of life. Many in the South viewed the election of Abraham Lincoln, as president of the United States as a threat because he did not believe in