When people think of the Civil War, they tend to polarize it as North versus South, or as a struggle between freedom and slavery. In reality, the Civil War was much more complex than simply two sides fighting for a single cause. The historian's study of social classes sheds light on the fact that internal conflicts influenced the outcome of the civil war. In this essay I argue that elites' efforts to maintain their social class during the Civil War weakened support for the Confederacy among non-elite people and thus influenced their willingness to secede. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The South had strong class divisions ingrained in their society before the Civil War even began. As an agricultural society, the Southern economy was centered on the production and maintenance of farmland and crops. The Southern plantation system placed a greater premium on commercial crops, such as tobacco or cotton. These plantations were owned by white males who constituted the elite class and held the greatest social class status in the South. The Southern elite class was small, comprising less than 25% of the total Southern population. Despite this, the Southern plantation system concentrated all the money, power, and privilege on these few elites, so there was a large gap between the rich elite and the rest of Southern society which made up the lower classes. the lower classes were ranked in terms of social status. The Yeoman family or farming class were made up of whites who grew food for consumption and sale in local markets so they could minimally support themselves. They were not highly regarded in Southern society because most of the food was grown in the North. Below them, in the lowest social class of Southern society, were black slaves. The elite class owned slaves as property and relied on their labor to obtain maximum profit from the plantations. the Confederacy during the Civil War. When Southern elites established their cash crops, they did not leave enough land for food production. Since most food was grown in the North, the Civil War caused food shortages and consequently food cost inflation. Because lower-class men, such as Yeomen farmers, predominantly fought for the Confederacy, they could not grow their own food. This led the Confederate government to forcibly take what little food was harvested in the South to feed their army. In response to food shortages, there were several food riots in major Southern cities, often called bread riots. The relationship between the elites and the non-elites became very tense because the non-elites believed that the elites had neglected their duty to provide food. for Southern dependents such as women and children during the war, and that this dereliction of duty was due to their own selfishness to profit from the crops. military service designed to preserve the upper social class status of elites. The Confederacy passed its first conscription legislation in April 1862, which essentially was a mandatory draft for military service requiring the registration of all able-bodied white males between the ages of 18 and 35. Not long after, in October 1862, the Confederacy passed the Twenty Slave Act which allowed an exemption from military conscription for men who owned twenty or more slaves. These laws shocked, 1999.
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