2. Economic impact: rural areas
• Effects not as dramatic as in cities
• In fact, wages for rural farm workers actually
rose
– Strong demand for crops
• Not just from Army, but from Europe
• People who suffered most in rural areas were
women trying to get manage farms on their
own
3. Impact on workers
• Civil War’s economic effects felt most strongly in cities
– New jobs and competition for labor; wages went up
• Increased by 50-60%
• BUT: Inflation went up, too —prices rose by almost
100%
• Living standards of many workers therefore declined
• Rise in child labor; pauperism; prostitution
• Growth of class conflict
– Growth of labor unions; more strikes
– Growing resentment of federal government
• Sense that it was on the side of the rich
4. Draft
• Enrollment Act of 1863
– First national system of conscription
• Much of the public—esp. recent immigrants—associated
conscription with European despotism
– Established Provost Marshals Bureau
• Divided North into 185 districts
• Provost marshals sent out to identify men eligible for draft
– All men between 20 and 45 had to register
– Exemptions for: Aliens who had not declared intent to become
citizens; disabled; only sons of dependent parents; sole
supporters of motherless children
– Draftees could pay a commutation fee of $300 or hire
a substitute
• $300 was roughly a year’s wages for an unskilled worker
– Commutation fee provision repealed in 1864
7. Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight?
• Poor not more likely to serve
• In the end, few men actually drafted
– Recall this is a war fought by volunteers – abt 90%
• Draft should be seen as a way to make people
“volunteer”
– Stigma to being drafted
– Volunteers received high bounties for signing up
• Jan. 1863: $300; 1864: $1,000
• BUT: the perception that the poor were bearing
the weight remained
8. Working-class resentment
• Many poor, working-class men deeply resented
the idea that the government was making them
fight for slaves
– Powerful strain of racism in the Democratic Party
– They feared black migration to North; job competition
• They also resented the rich
– $300 men
• And they resented institutions they associated
with the war and with Northern reformers who
supported the war
– New York Times
9. New York City Draft Riot 1863
• Largest riot/civil disturbance in US history
• 4-5 days of mayhem, starting July 13
– First draft lottery in the city had been July 11
• Official death toll around 120
– 11 blacks lynched in the streets
• Black longshoremen
• Well-dressed, “$300 men” attacked
• Colored Orphan Asylum burned to ground
– Recently built; imposing symbol of Northern benevolence;
children themselves escaped
• New York militia troops returning from Gettysburg had
to put down the uprising
14. Widespread desertion
• Provost Marshal estimated there were
200,000 deserters from years (1863-65)
– Joan Cashin suggests there were even more
– Majority of these men were not fleeing to Canada;
they were hiding right in the US
• Could only do this with cooperation of families &
communities
– Cashin argues that this shows the predominance
of prewar loyalties to one’s family, community,
white race, own self interest
15. Democratic Opposition
• Democratic strongholds throughout the US
– IL, IN, OH, parts of PA and NY
• “War Democrats” (loyal opposition)
– Opposed Emancipation and confiscation of southerners’
property, but believed war necessary to restore the Union
• “Peace Democrats”
– Believed the war should end immediately; thought the
North lacked constitutional right to force the South to
remain in the Union
– Blamed the war on abolitionists
– Engaged in small-scale guerrilla activity; parts of IL put
under martial law
• Unionists referred to both as “Copperheads”
18. Wartime elections
• Abraham Lincoln received only 50% of the
Northern vote in 1860 (40% overall)
• Support for the Democrats grew in 1862-63
– 1862: Recall that Democrats made big gains in
Congress and gained several governorships
• 1864 Election: Really key election
– Lincoln himself expected to lose
– Republicans so desperate they renamed the party!
• “National Union Party”
19. Radical Republicans and Abolitionists
• Held their own convention in the Spring 1864
• Split the party between pro- and anti-Lincoln
candidates
• They put up John C. Frémont as their candidate
• Platform called for protection of civil rights of
freed people
– Did not call for the right to vote for black men
– But did call for confiscation of lands and redistribution
21. Lincoln and Frederick Douglass
• Aug. 1864: Lowest point for Lincoln’s presidency
– Lots of pressure on him to rescind the Emancipation
Proclamation
• Lincoln invited Frederick Douglass to White House
– At their first meeting, Douglass asked for meeting to talk
about unequal pay for black soldiers
– But this time Lincoln summoned Douglass
• Lincoln essentially asked Douglass to organize an
operation to funnel slaves out of the upper
South/border
• Douglass was stunned by Lincoln’s desire to free as
many slaves as possible before the war was lost
• Plan never put into action because military tide turned
22. 1864 Election
• Democratic candidate: George McClellan
– Ostensibly a War Democrat, but wants war to end
soon
• How does Lincoln pull off a victory?
– (Got 55% of the popular vote in the end)
– Success on the battlefield
• Especially Sherman’s taking of Atlanta in Sept. 64
– Soldier vote: Union soldiers go overwhelmingly for
Lincoln (78%)
• Upshot: Despite significant dissent, support for
continuing the war remained relatively strong,
especially when compared to the Confederacy
