Agriculture, Raw Materials and Industry 1860

Prior to the Civil War, most of the industrial growth was confined to the northeast and midwest. The northeast dominated the manufacturing and industrial landscape, processing 85 per cent of the raw materials from the midwest and the West. The southern states remained primarily agricultural, although bituminous coal was mined in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, taking over from the cleaner, smokeless anthracite. Anthracite coal, mined in Pennsylvania, was a popular fossil fuel, but the supplies were limited and soft bituminous coal, although dirtier, was needed for powering factories and railways. Many slaves were made to work in the southern mines. The first ‘gold-rush’ in the US was in North Carolina where farmers, after the growing season was over, would prospect for silver and gold. In the 1830s immigrants from Cornwall, England, introduced deep mining. A Federal mint was built in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, providing coinage.