The Antebellum US Economy

In the antebellum era, the economy of the United States underwent an acceleration of economic growth. Cliometric studies have established not only that growth predated the Civil War but that many features prominent in later years – commercialization of agriculture, urbanization, the rise of manufacturing, and mass European immigration – were clearly visible in the antebellum period. This chapter reviews and summarizes this body of research. A notable dimension of this history is that growth and development transpired under two distinct regimes: the slave economy of the southern states and the family-farm, wage labor economy of the free states. This experiment in comparative development has also been a focus of cliometric attention and thus provides a second theme for the chapter.