Emerging Civil War

Emerging Civil War welcomes back guest contributor Adam Burke…[see Part I here]

20th New York Volunteer Infantry Monument, Antietam National Cemetery. The 20th New York Regiment is an example of one of many Union regiments comprised of mostly immigrants. (NPS)

Slavery’s effects on Southern industry and manufacturing devastated the Confederacy’s military manpower capacity. The antebellum North enjoyed dramatic economic and population expansion. From 1840 to 1850, population growth in Northern free states was twenty percent larger than in southern slave states.^[1] Immigration accounts for some of this difference. Industrialization led to rapid urbanization in the North. Immigrants found growing Northern cities to be attractive destinations.^[2]  Seven of every eight people coming into the country from abroad settled in free states. ^[3] In the South, immigrants competed against unpaid labor.^[4]  Additionally, the Northern economy relied upon appreciating land value and cheap labor, which incentivized Northern investors to promote immigration, improve infrastructure, and to develop cities. However, wealthy Southerners, who had no incentive to sell land, discouraged similar developments to maintain the value of their slave labor.^[5] As a result, the North tended to be a more accommodating environment for those seeking labor opportunities. In fact, only eleven percent of immigrants chose to live in the South.^[6] The Union army benefited greatly from immigration, comprising twenty five percent of the army; soldiers who had at least one foreign parent comprised another eighteen percent of the army.^[7] By the time of the war, the population of free states contained three and a half times more military aged males than Confederate states.^[8] Continue reading →