Postbellum Economies of the American South and American West

Introduction

            When most Americans think of the Civil War, they think of North versus South, Union versus Confederacy, or slavery versus abolition.  For this week’s Blog posting, the focus will include the region of the American South, but instead of comparing it to the North, the assignment will focus on the American West. Specifically, the post will examine the economies of the South and the West in a postbellum context. Within the region of the West, the post will also narrow in on the state of Montana. This is because even though Montana’s location was far away from the main conflict between the Union and the Confederacy, it still influenced people’s lives in Montana.[1]

Research Methodology and Sources

For the purposes of this blog, postbellum and post Civil War will be used interchangeably. The research methodology is a simple comparison between the South’s postbellum economy and the West’s postbellum economy with a special focus on Montana. Sources for this blog are: (1) “Would Slavery Have Survived Without the Civil War?: Economic Factors in the American South During the Antebellum and Postbellum Eras” in Southern Cultures by Peter Coclanis and Stanley Engerman. (2) Montana Stories of the Land by Krys Holmes. (3) “Beyond North and South” in the Journal of the Civil War by Stacey Smith.

Conclanis’ and Eberling’s article basically examines how the institution of slavery was very important to the Southern economy before the Civil War and what became of the Southern economy after the Civil War.[1]   Krys Holmes book, especially chapter 6, does a solid job at covering Montana’s gold and silver boom from postbellum all the way to the late 19th century. Finally, Smith’s article provided the idea to compare the postbellum economies of the American South and West. Specifically, one of the things that stood out in Smith’s article was how she explained that many historians underestimated the manner in which slavery and race had been critical in shaping the American South and American West [2]. Smith introduces the reader to the American West’s evolution in many contexts, including economic.

South versus West: Postbellum Economies

             Of course, the end of slavery had a significant impact on the Southern economy following the Civil War .[3] Another factor that had a significant impact on the Southern economy was the legacy of slavery—but even Coclanis and Engerman, acknowledge that this is a difficult thing to do because slavery was just one of many things that impacted the Southern economy, along with the destruction, devastation, and dislocations that resulted from the Civil War itself, as well as postbellum changes in supply and demand.[4] Even President Lincoln recognized that slavery had somehow chronically impeded the Southern states' economic development postbellum because slavery permeated every facet of Southern life, including its economy, and that did not go away with the emancipation of the slaves. [5] Cotton was king before the Civil War and was still king after the War. The Southern economy was able to adapt and be flexible in exercising its economic adjustments after the Civil War [6] whereby the South’s economy grew because it increased cotton production throughout the 19th century because like the North, the South industrialized. [7]

            The economy of the American West grew after the Civil War. In western territories like Montana, southern accents from the former Confederacy and Yankee accents became common due to the people who were displaced due to the Civil War.[8] Like the American South, many Westerners did not appreciate the Federal government’s oversight on their territories and considered them corrupt and authoritarian, this despite the Federal economic aid provided to white migrants who depended on this assistance for development.[9]

            In many western states and territories, precious metals like gold and silver brought many Americans out West to make their fortunes. Montana was one of these territories. Many of the people to head west included many freedmen and former slaves and there was even a Jewish population who came west to work as merchants in the gold market.[10] The gold economy of Montana played a crucial role in funding the Union government and its war against the South and the Union did not want southerners controlling the west and its gold, so the Union sponsored and encouraged Northerners to go west and work in the Gold camps.[11] There were many southerners in Montana territory during and after the Civil War, in fact, they even named a town Varina, Montana after the Confederate First Lady, but Northerners appointed by Lincoln in the Territorial government promptly changed it to Virginia City, Montana, its name to present day.[12] Post Civil War, the economy in Montana, boomed because of its gold and silver[13] resources, and as the gold economy took off after the Civil War, so did the silver and quartz economy boom in the 1870s.[14] But like most boom economies, bust economies also happened as well, and by 1893, when Montana became a state, the precious metal contracts were canceled and immediately collapsed.[15]

            Just like cotton connected the South’s economy to the North, silver had connected Montana’s economy to the east (the rest of the country) [16]. The Civil War definitely had impacts on the economies of the American South and the American West. Postbellum, there was definitely anti-Federal sentiment in both the South and the West, but for different economic reasons: in the South it was slavery and in the West it was land management and economic development.[17] In the end, both economies eventually became interwoven with the rest of the country, and helped develop and propel America into the 20th century.

[1] Coclanis and Engerman, “Would Slavery Have Survived Without the Civil War?: Economic Factors in the American South During the Antebellum and Postbellum Eras”, 66.

[2] Smith, “Beyond North and South”, 569.

[3] Coclanis and Engerman, “Would Slavery Have Survived Without the Civil War?: Economic Factors in the American South During the Antebellum and Postbellum Eras”, 74.

[4] IBID., 74.

[5] IBID., 74.

[6] IBID., 81-82

[7] IBID., 87.

[8] Holmes, Montana Stories of the Land, 110.

[9] Smith, “Beyond North and South”, 569.

[10] Holmes, Montana Stories of the Land, 110.

[11] IBID., 113.

[12] IBID., 115.

[13] The Montana state motto is “Oro y Plata”, which is Spanish for gold and silver.

[14] Holmes, Montana Stories of the Land, 116.

[15] IBID., 117.

[16] IBID., 118.

[17] Smith, “Beyond North and South”, 569.

Bibliography

Coclanis, Peter A. and Stanley L. Engerman, “Would Slavery Have Survived Without the Civil War?: Economic Factors in the American South During the Antebellum and Postbellum Eras” Southern Cultures 19, no. 2 (2013): 66-90.

Holmes, Krys, Montana Stories of the Land, Helena, MT: Montana Historical Society Press, 2008.

Smith, Stacey L., “Beyond North and South” Journal of the Civil War Era 6, no. 4 (2016): 566-591

[1] Holmes, Montana Stories of the Land, 115.