Thesis: The Civil War altered political, social, and intellectual ideologies of American culture.
By the 1860s, cotton was no longer ôkingö in the South, and many SouthernerÆs were calling for a more diversified economy. There was an increasing move from a farm economy to an industrial one, and the industrialization of the South with increased capital investment in the Southern economy was endorsed by many. At the same time, Anglo-Americans were now settling millions of acres and overcoming resistance from Native Americans in the Indian Wars. The Civil War was about much more than slavery, and the issue of slavery was much more complex than many realize. Slavery was responsible for the rise of modernity, the growth of instrumental nationality, perceptions of racial identity, the spread of market relations, wage-labor development, growing commerce and communication, the birth of consumer societies, and individualist sensibility.
The likes of Henry Carey believed strongly in protectionism, believing that ôThe object of protection is that of securing a demand for labour, and its tendency is to produce equality of condition...the abolition of protection [has] invariably tended to the production of inequalityö (Document A). He pointed out that wealthy capitalists do not fear change because they usually come out of it for the better, while small businessmen are often ruined by change. The wealthy can borrow at low rates of interest to get back on their feet after a setback, but the poor donÆt stand a chance of getting a loan. He noted that wages were falling while the wealthy were making vast profits. This, he said, was because there was no faith in the future. It was obvious that consumption was outstripping production, that imports outstripped exports, and that the national debt was growing.
Carey also noted that slavery was the result of the British system employed in all the countries over which it gained pow...