Session 5

• Northern industries


  • Shoe industry suffered as its market was in the South
  • Cotton industry suffered as it did not have access to raw cotton
• Industries connected to the war

  • Munitions
  • Uniforms
  • Railroads
• Wealthy manufacturers and traders

  Profited from the war
• Ordinary workers

  Wages lagged prices due to war inflation and taxes
• Women and boys in the workplace


  Kept wages down
• Protests by workers


  Met with arguments that the men were being unpatriotic
• After the war the Northern Industries were ready for rapid growth
• The war in the South


  • Disaster as the Union troops destroyed the railroad and cotton production fell
  • Only industries that flourished were those to do with the war such as munitions
• Food shortages in the South


  Due to lack of manpower as men went off to fight
• Some cotton growers

  Refused to help by continuing to grow cotton instead of food
• Trade between the North and South

  North desperate for raw cotton, exchanged for food
• South


  Suffered from inflation as they could not fund the war through taxation so resorted to printing more money
• In some cases, this led to hyperinflation and the more that was printed, the worse it got
• Changing role of women


  • Took on the role of unpaid volunteers during the war – nursing, farming, and managing plantations and in the munition factories
  • Took part in protests over food shortages and conscription
• After the war


  Calls to give women the vote went unheard and many returned to their traditional roles
• Shortages and Inflation

  • War disrupted the production of food, and food shortages provoked riots and protests
  • Soldiers stole whatever food was available whilst starvation was common
  • Profiteers made a great deal of money as prices for food rose due to inflation
• Commodities with price rises

  • Soap
  • Sugar
  • Coffee
  • Bacon
• Coffee price in 1860


  $0.50 for 4lbs
• Recruitment and Conscription

  • Volunteers rushed to join both sides at the start of the war
  • Local recruiting offices set up and volunteer regiments formed from areas
  • Conscription introduced in the Confederacy in 1862 for all men between the ages of 18-35 who were required to serve for 3 years
  • Conscription introduced in the Union in 1863 for men between the ages of 20-45
  • Planters with 20 + slaves were exempt in the South
  • Those who did not want to fight could either pay a fee or provide a substitute not of draft age
  • Opposition to conscription, including riots which limited how effective it was
• Living in a War Zone

  • Civilians caught up in the front line, fraught with dangers
  • Cities such as Charleston South Carolina were completely flattened
  • Children often caught up in the action
  • Rich and poor affected alike
  • Guerrilla warfare meant the war could be unpredictable, and people took the law into their own hands so lynching of opposition soldiers were common
• On 1 January 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation proclamation which freed the slaves
• Reasons for Emancipation

  • Give the North a moral cause and boost morale
  • Damage the South as Slave Labour was propping up the Confederacy as slaves were working in munitions factories
  • Remove any danger of France or Britain supporting the South
• Emancipation meant African Americans could enlist and by mid-1863 they were involved in the fighting although not always receiving equal treatment