American History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

American History - Essay Example Whatever the cause of one of the fiercest wars in American history, it is worth noting that the event is a good example of interconnection between economics, politics and race. The North was very different from the south in terms of the economy and this in turn affected the politics of the day with the central question being the place of slavery in the economy. Slavery on the other hand, was a strong indicator of racism in America as it was a sign of white supremacy which the Southern whites fought hard to keep. These slaves were very vital to the prosperity of the Southern economy and affected the politics of the day as it gave the slave owners the right to control politics (Egnal, 2009). These large plantation owners required slaves to tend to their cotton plantations thus were against abolition of slavery whereas the North most dependent on industries had no need for slaves thus advocated abolition. The aim of this paper is to show how politics, economics and race are interconnect ed. To achieve this, the paper will discuss one historical event where these issues are interconnected: the civil war. More so, it will discuss the causes of the war to show that it was a result of politics, economics and racism manifested in slavery. ... It is this high population that led to election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 even without support from the south. As such, the north sought labor for its manufacturing sector and it was in form of free labor. This was due to the capitalistic economy and republican ideals which favored liberal policies as opposed to slavery. The north advocated for rapid economic modernization which entailed imposition of tariffs, internal improvements at the expense of government and introduction of a national bank (Engle, 2001). The north also had iron and coal deposits as well as enough water for moving the economy thus were favored by the tariffs. On the other hand, the south did not have minerals and as such relied on agricultural production to drive the economy especially cotton plantations. The cotton produced would be sent to the north for manufacturing as there were no industries in the south. Owing to this fact, the south was against introduction of a national bank and internal im provement at federal expense as it only favored the north (Egnal, 2009). There were few plantation owners and few small farmers in the south thus the plantation owners controlled the economy of the south. Due to the expansive plantations owned by the whites, extensive labor was needed and this was sourced from slavery. Slaves were brought in from Africa and these were considered inferior than whites hence prevalence of racism. The southern economy was dependent on slave labor hence the quest for secession to avoid the outcome of the abolitionist movement that was cropping up in the north. The civil war thus was prompted by the differences in the economies of the two regions and