Since the United States was just a group of colonial territories, the North and South were in opposition of each other on every subject. The North held more of a market economy while the south sustained on a more agricultural economy heavily reliant on “king cotton”, tobacco, and sugarcane. This split grew over the years, and by the time Lincoln was elected as president in 1861, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had all seceded from the union. They had also elected their own president, Jefferson Davis. However, it was not until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln had committed the Union to the emancipation of slaves. Perhaps this was because he wanted to honor his promise in his inaugural address. It may have also been that he wanted to secure his election. And during the war, Lincoln may have wanted to prove a point to the Confederacy. There was a multitude of reasons Lincoln may have wanted to attempt to hide his true intentions of the Civil War in the beginning, but one thing is certain. Everyone automatically defaults to …show more content…
Right before the Civil War broke out, the American south was producing about two-thirds of the world’s cotton. This built up the south’s confidence of victory. If almost all of the world relied on them for a major crop, the world would side with them in the war. The south was also confident in their economy as the value of slaves alone was worth more than the industrialized economy. The worth of railroads, banks, and railroads combined were still at a lower value than that of slaves in 1860 (Arrington). The Union was concerned about having another economic crisis after the Panic of 1857, which added to the south’s confidence. From the confederacy’s perspective, the North needed them and should have been willing to accept the fact that slaves made everyone money, and made the economy of the country as a whole