Who has the Keys to Success?

The pull of the trigger to start the Civil War had been inching closer and closer during the 1850's.  Our class learned about the North's and the South's statistics and how their strategies.  We analyzed many documents to figure out how each sides' differences could help lead them to victory.  The first document my group looked at was a railroad and slave density document.  It showed the railroad system and the entrenched slavery cotton production in the South.  The next one was called Slavery by the Numbers.  It gave facts about what the slaves did, how many there were, and what typical master was.  We then looked at the Resources for each side.  There were many pie charts that showed each advantage including population, slave population, and industrial and agricultural advantages.  We also read the Strengths of the North and South.  It showed what each side was particularly strong in and how they could benefit from them. 

After the document analysis, everyone in the class had to make their own Infographic.  The point of making it was to show how the important advantages of each side could affect the outcome of the Civil War.  There were many important points.  One was population where the North occupied 75% of the entire United States' population so that way, they could send people to go to war and have others stay back and help work farms and industries.  Another important point was the railroad mileage.  The North had 22,000 miles of railroads which is 13,000 more miles than the South at only 9,000.  The North had a big advantage here because they were able to transport more people, goods, but most importantly weapons and ammunition for fighting.  The next big point was the agricultural resources.  In our previous units, we have determined that slavery was entrenched in Southern-American society to produce substantial amounts of cotton and crops.  By the 1860s, the South had produced 2.28 billion pounds of cotton reaching a revenue of almost $200 million dollars in exports.  The South sold to foreign countries and the North.  The North's textile mills needed cotton for production and their economy would decrease dramatically had the South stopped selling cotton to them.  The South had the power to do that if they wanted to.  However, that would also lead to their economy degenerating as well.  Lastly, there was the war plan.  The North had a very clever strategy called the Anaconda Plan.  The North cut off the oceanic ports of the South and stopped the shipping through the Mississippi River.  That meant that goods nor weapons and supplies could be imported.  The South used an act of attrition, and they waited for an attack from any direction inland.  The North overall had more advantages than the South did.  Oh, and they also had the right kind of people, like the ones that wanted to abolish slavery, not keep it.




Link to my Piktochart

 https://magic.piktochart.com/output/4854999-untitled-infographic