Economic Growth During the Postbellum Period

Northern Manufacturing Production 

            Prior to the US Civil War, the majority of the manufacturing industry resided in the northern portion of the country with New York and Pennsylvania as the epicenters. This was in large part due to the less ideal climate for their agricultural sectors. While Pennsylvania historically is considered the breadbasket of America, the economic output for subsistence agriculture tapered off by the late nineteenth century.[1] Subsequently, a booming venture into the second phase of the Industrial Revolution had begun in England during this period, which would eventually find its way to the Northeastern region of the United States. Where wheat farms dominated the Pennsylvania economy since its inception, steel manufacturing and factories would surpass it. Railroads and factories would come to prop up the American economy in the postbellum period, totaling over one-hundred-seventy-thousand miles of track laid between eighteen-seventy-one to nineteen hundred.[2] The primary driver of this rapid expansion of railway was the advent of the mass production of iron and later steel by the likes of Andrew Carnage and others. As the expansion of railways stretched, the necessity for railcars increased which in turn increased the value output of these items from forty-two-thousand dollars in eighteen-sixty-nine to nearly one-hundred-forty-thousand dollars in nineteen hundred.[3] Similarly, as the ability to ship goods across the country at an exponentially faster speed, the necessity for the increased production of these goods increased. Chief among these commodities shipped along the expansive railway systems was oil. Taking the place of whale oil, kerosene was the primary method of lighting the town and cities of America during the postbellum period. As the demand for kerosene grew, oil exploration and refinement took hold in the area of the Ohio River Valley, and in Pennsylvania. From eighteen-sixty-five to nineteen-hundred, oil field production in the U.S. increased from seven-thousand barrels per day to three-hundred-thousand barrels.[4] This increase in supply and demand would not only alter the national economy but also the physical geography of the Northeast. To replace railways for shipping, oil tycoons, like John Rockefeller, would lay thousands of miles of pipelines direct from their refineries to the cities and light up the country. 

Southern Agricultural Production

            As the North progressed along the manufacturing path it began prior to the Civil War, the South, completely decimated by the conflict, returned to its former economic livelihood, agriculture. More importantly, the South returned to cotton production. Prior to the Civil War, necessity for slaves skyrocketed with the expansion of vast plantations due to the invention of the cotton gin, which revolutionized the industry and generated large profit margins for the plantation owners. Though while cotton was king, much of the region was still farmed for subsistence items and less for financial gain. Corn and hogs were primary contenders for crop production prior to the Civil War. However, following the end of the war and the expansion westward that followed, the necessity for subsistence crops dwindled due to imports from the West. The shift was also due to the overwhelming value difference between corn and cotton. The value of output per acre between cotton and corn was over double in favor of cotton, with corn valued at seven dollars and sixty-eights cents and cotton valued at eighteen dollars and twenty-five cents.[5] With the necessity for subsistence crops gone and the clear value difference, southern planters adopted concepts such as sharecropping and other techniques to substitute labor, enabling a quick return to record breaking outputs in cotton production. From eighteen-sixty-six to nineteen hundred, total cotton output for the United States grew from just over two-million bales to over ten million, eclipsing any previous year. As the number of bales increased, so did the value of this commodity, starting at only nine cents per pound, with a single bale weighing four-hundred-eighty pounds, in eighteen-seventy-six the U.S. cotton production valued at two-hundred-million dollars. By eighteen-seventy-nine, the price increased to ten cents per pound, bringing the value to two-hundred-eighty-million dollars, this taking the price increase and production increase into account. By nineteen hundred, the price stalled at nine cents a pound, though due to production levels, the value reached four-hundred-sixty-three-million dollars.[6] Establishing itself as an economic stronghold, agriculture remained the top sector for the South up until the early part of the twenty century.

[1] McMurry, Sally. “Great Valley Historical Agricultural Region, 1750-1960: Historical Farming Systems.” Agricultural Resources of Pennsylvania, c. 1700-1960. University Park. Pennsylvania State University. 2012. 24.

[2] “Railroads in the Late 19th Century”. Library of Congress. Washington D.C. 2025.

[3] U.S. Bureau of the Census. “Manufactures (Series J 1-180)”. Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789-1945. Washington D.C. Government Printing Office. 1949. 185.

[4] EIA. “U.S. Field Production of Crude Oil (Thousand Barrels per Day).” Eia.gov. 2010.

[5] Wright, Gavin. “From Laborlords to Landlords.” Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War. New York. Basic Books. 1986. 36.

[6] USDA. “All Cotton Area Planted and Harvested, Yield, Production, Price, and Value – United States: 1866-2018.” Crop Production Historical Track Records. Washington D.C. Government Printing Office. 2019.