American history: key events and developments

American History

Federal Government Post Civil War

Many things may have led to the federal government's increasing gain in power and influence in the years following the American Civil War. The purpose of the American Revolution was to break free of the monarchy of England so that each state could gain more autonomy. The problem with this is that there may have been too many differences between the states with some favoring such acts as slavery and some wanting to abolish slavery. Under the constitution, the federal government was created to serve the states. However, in the years after the American Civil War, the federal government has gained more power than the states.

A major political outcome of the American Civil War was that the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution was passed which abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment granted United States citizenship to those born within the country. These two amendments were detrimental to the south because the slaves were the ones that performed all of the labor to make the slave owners wealthy. With the abolishment of slavery, this meant that slave owners could no longer force the slaves to work for free. Also, the slaves were not even considered human by many, so granting full legal citizenship of those that were born in the United States was another source of trouble for many. These two amendments snowballed into the Fifteenth Amendment which gave African-American men the right to vote. According to Foner, states failing to enfranchise black men lost some of their seats in Congress (2008).

A social impact that the American Civil War has had is that although one of its outcomes was the freedom of African-American slaves, it drove an even bigger wedge between blacks and whites of this country. Even though they were considered free, African-Americans were still treated by many whites as less than human. But because of the amendments mentioned earlier, many former slaves now had rights that they never could have imagined having before. Access to these rights did not come easy, but through the years the African-American's social position in the United States has grown and greatly improved.

Because of the loss of so many men during this war, the country suffered economically. With the abolishment of slavery, the south's economics suffered tremendously. Blacks could no longer be force to work the cotton and agricultural fields for free and many migrated north for better opportunities. This left the south with limited economic opportunities as they were not quick to become industrialized like the north was. Many immigrants settle in the northern region of the United States were job opportunities were much better. The cotton industry of the American south not only affected the economy of the southern states, it also affected countries overseas. Scotland is one of those countries. Because of the American Civil War and the loss of slave labor, Paisley, a city in Scotland suffered a major loss to its economy (Peters, 2001).