In the 1860s the relations between the northern industrial states and the southern slave owning states became extremely strained . The development of the northern states proceeded in the direction of industry and farming and was based on a system of hired labour . Contrariwise , the plantation economy of the southern states was based on slave labour . The slave plantation economy was conducted by predatory methods . The planters used no fertiliser and every three or four years started cultivating new lands , abandoning the old ones . This system of economy required vast spaces . The slave – owning planters moved westward , as did the farmers from the eastern and north – eastern states and the emigrants from Europe . The antagonisms between the farmers and slave – owning planters were becoming sharply aggravated in the struggle for the lands in the West . There were also sharp antagonisms between the industrial bourgeoisie of the North and the North – East and the slave owning planters . Slave – owning impeded the economic development of the southern states , which affected the volume of the internal market for the industry of the North and North – East . The capitalists of the northern states were extremely short of labour and regarded the Negro slaves as their future wage – workers . The southern planters exported cotton , tobacco and other products to England and from there imported the necessary industrial commodities . That roused the discontent of the capitalists of the North and North – East since such foreign trade of the South deprived the northern manufacturers of markets and sources of raw materials . The slave – owning plantation system experienced a deep crisis . The extensive methods of agricultural economy on the plantations of the South exhausted the land . Slave labour on which the slave – owning plantation system was based hampered the introduction of new agricultural machinery . Great difficulties in purchasing slaves arose , the average price of a slave , which was 150 dollars in the beginning of the 19th century , increasing to 2,000 dollars in 1860 , The slaves revolted and ran away from the plantations . The slave – owning planters did not confine themselves to domi nation in the southern states , but moved westward with the aim of expanding their plantations . In its domestic and foreign policies the government of the U.S.A. supported the interests of the slave – owners and encouraged the slave – trade . The slave – owning planters demanded an aggressive expan sionist foreign policy and advocated a programme of per petuating slavery . They regarded the aggressive war of 1846 48 against Mexico as the first stage of transforming South and Central America into a province of their slave – owning empire . The Republican Party which was organised in the North in 1854 and expressed in the main the interests of the big bourgeoisie , advocated the opening of lands in the West to free settling and opposed slavery . In 1860 Abraham Lincoln , Vice – President of the Republican Party and Member of the House of Representatives , was elected President of the U.S.A.
Capitalism Society 