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Civil War and Slavery

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I think that scholars could argue that the Civil War was as much about economics as it was as a human rights issue mostly because they were directly related. The main issue of the civil war was slavery and the reason the South wanted slavery was because of how intertwined it had become into the economy. Slavery was no longer just a means of getting working done but was an asset which could be bought and sold almost like a human stock market. Demand was very high for slaves in the south and as a result many people began to buy slaves with the sole purpose of breeding them to sell the children at a later date. The whole idea is very messed up but people will do just about anything if the payoff is big enough. In Williamson’s article he discussed how the price of a slave was over $130,000 in today’s prices which shows just how big of an investment owing a slave was. He goes on to say that that price was twice that of what it was 14 years ago showing that the price for slaves were rapidly increasing. Williamson also mentions “there is considerable evidence that slaves were worked harder than free labor in Southern agriculture, that what they could be induced to produce in bondage was greater than what they could be expected to produce with the freedom to make their own choice of labor or leisure”. Meaning that landowner preferred to have slaves because they could have fewer workers that way and get more work done. He goes on to say “The statistics on slave prices show that healthy young adult men in the prime of their working lives had the highest price followed by females in the childbearing years. Young adult males had more value as they were stronger, could work harder in the fields, and could be expected to work at such a level for more years. Young adult women had value over and above their ability to work in the fields; they were able to have children who by law

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