Argument
The Civil War resulted in the redistribution of wealth since former slave owners could no longer receive profits from the unpaid workforce. Prior to the Civil War, a handful of plantation owners in the South were able to accumulate extreme wealth. Naturally, the reason for this was them using slaves to work on the plantations, since the expenses the owners had to support operations were minimal. Hence, they were able to make good profits with little expanses. The Civil War affected the social and legal alterations in the way slavery is perceived, which affected the ability of Southern slaveowners to attain profits.
Moreover, prior to the Civil War, the wealth distribution between the Northerners and the Southerners was substantial as well, since the richest 1% from the South had larger wealth than wealthy people living in the North.1 After the Civil War, the heterogenic of wealthy people in the South changes since others engaged in business and ways of attaining wealth, which did not imply the use of slaves’ labor force. Therefore, plantation owners were no longer the richest people in the South, and the distribution of wealth changed because they could no longer profit from using a free workforce.
Primary And Secondary Source Analysis
The primary source that supports the argument of wealth redistribution is the census data from the 1860s.2 According to the Census Bureau, in the 1860s the wealthiest people of the South, more specifically the 1% had extreme wealth, incomparable to that owned by people in other parts of America. In contrast, the richest 1% from the North was poorer when compared to the people in the South. This census data is a primary source that helps analyze the distribution of wealth within different regions of America and, in combination with other sources, determine if the Civil War had an impact on the financial status of people in different regions.
A secondary source is an article by Dupond and Rosenbloom, where the authors argue that the difference in wealth is linked to the source of income that differed between Northerners and Southerners.3 In the North, the majority of wealthy people derived profits from owning property. In contrast, the South’s wealthiest people were plantation owners, which implied that they used slave force to support their operations. This source offers an economic analysis of the wealth distribution and mobility based on census data pre and post-Civil War, supporting the idea that this event changed the distribution of wealth.
Analysis
Both the Vox article and the 1860s census data show a change in the distribution of wealth across the states. These sources are linked because Dupond and Rosenbloom use census data as part of their analysis to determine if there were any changes in the amount of accumulated wealth in different parts of America. According to Dupond and Rosenblood, “considerably more turnover among the ranks of top southern wealth holders.” After the Civil War, only one-third of the people in the South who were wealthy prior to it retained their money. The impact of this source on the chosen event is the provision of a detailed analysis based on the actual government data about the financial status of people in different parts of America. Apart from empirical evidence, the authors also offer an interpretation of these findings, for example, by explaining the sources of income in the North and South.
The census data is a primary source and its analysis may be difficult for people without a statistical background. However, upon a simple examination, one can see the difference between the wealth held by people in the Northern states and that of people in the South. Hence, this source supports the analysis by providing evidence from the 1860s.
Bibliography
Dupond, Brandon and Rosenbloom, J. “Impact of the US Civil War on Southern Wealth Holders.” Vox. 2021.
“1860 Census: Population of the United States.” Census Bureau. 2021, Web.
Footnotes
- Brandon Brandon and Rosenbloom, J., “Impact of the US Civil War on Southern Wealth Holders,” Vox, Web.
- “1860 Census: Population of the United States,” Census Bureau, Web.
- Brandon Brandon and Rosenbloom, J., “Impact of the US Civil War on Southern Wealth Holders,” Vox, Web.