Causes Of American Society During The Antebellum Period

1250 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of religion on society

America’s society was basically the same as it was shortly after the signing of the Constitution up to the Antebellum period. However, during the Antebellum period several different circumstances arose that caused America to start changing. Reform groups started to rise to power and were calling for an increase in morals and for equal rights, religion was being used in both the North and the South to promote entirely different outcomes, and the need for economic expansion greatly changed how the America society was. Reform groups were starting to appear in America and were trying to change how Americans treated others and to increase American morals. Robert Owen delivered a speech in the Hall of Representatives saying that everyone should …show more content…

While the North was promoting an increase in manufacturing, the South was promoting an increase in agriculture. “Poor men could in two or three years without any aid, become wealthy” because they would find good farm land and “sell their information to those who were too idle, or too rich to undergo the fatigue of hunting for it.” The land would then become a plantation and slaves would be brought in to work it. “More than 6,000 Negroes … have been sold in Yazoo County alone.” To make more money, the South wanted to continue to expand slavery. This increased tensions between the North and the South. The North had eventually abolished slavery and wanted to end slavery while the South was trying to expand it to make more money. This leads to several conflicts over the issue of slavery and whenever the South, mainly South Carolina at the beginning, felt that the institution of slavery was threatened, they threatened to secede if they didn’t get what they wanted. This would lead to the Civil War since the North finally stopped compromising with the South over the issue of slavery. America changed greatly during the Antebellum period. Before, it was completely united as a nation and was somewhat behind the European nations economically. During the Antebellum period, however, America was starting to catch up to Europe economically and divides started to appear between the Northern states and the Southern states. The changes brought by the Antebellum period eventually leads to the Southern states seceding from the Union and the start of the Civil

Show More
Related

  • Antebellum Case Study

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    2) Was there any degree of autonomy in the lives of enslaved women in the revolutionary or antebellum America? Use the documents to address the question of whether or not an enslaved woman could protect the humanity and if so, explore how this might be achieved. Also include how the specific era (revolutionary or antebellum) affected her autonomy.

    Read More

  • Civil War Reconstruction Dbq

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both constitutional and social developments greatly changed the United States to a revolutionary proportion between 1860 and 1877. The new amendments and the fight for civil rights altered the previous way of life and forever changed American society. Inequality, fear, and corruption sent the United States into turmoil that would transform the country and lead to a revolution of change.

    Read More

  • The Sectionalism of the 19th Century

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    The North was based on industrialism and the South on agriculture. Perhaps one of the greatest issues ever faced by the United States was that of slavery. The South had become extremely content with their way of life with slaves and the North were very against it. This caused many disagreements between the two regions and ultimately was one of the main causes of the Civil War. They also had different views on tariffs due to the difference in the economies. The North was booming with industrialization and they didn’t like competing with the goods being imported. The tariffs provided protection for the northern industries and in turn had a negative impact they had on the southern economy. This only amplified the uneasy feeling that the South felt about the Union. They feared the Union would grow too powerful and the people would eventually lose their voice. It was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that opened the door and unleashed the beast that was sectionalism in the nation. After the compromise the North and South had a hard time agreeing on anything.

    Read More

  • Chesapeake And New England Colonies

    1815 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...arate societies by the time of the 1700's. Agriculture, motive, people, religion, and terrain are all factors that affected how they grew apart. However, it is also through the actions of the men and woman who settled in the regions and the choices they made that led to the development of two societies. The Chesapeake region became a society of money-driven, wealthy plantation owners, virtually no middle class workers, and those in extreme poverty. The New England colonies, in contrast, developed into a society of middle class family men who placed extreme emphasis on religion. The two societies in what would become one nation may have had effects on America in the future. The dispute over slavery, the imbalance of workers, and the class differences cause rifts between the two regions over time. Two radically different cultures cannot coincide in harmony forever.

    Read More

  • Antebellum Reform DBQ

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...s. Although all of these reforms sought to expand democratic ideals, some had unforeseen and unintended effects. Morse wanted to protect democracy and the US from infiltrators but his paranoia influenced his one-sided view of halting immigration which is against democratic ideals of promoting a safe haven for those seeking liberty from an aggressor. Then there were the transcendentalist’s whose aim it was to create a perfect society. Although well-meaning, fundamentally goes against democratic ideals. The validity that reform movements sought to expand democratic ideals is proven by the domino effect of several movements such as equality brought on by women’s suffrage, temperance, and the abolition of slavery which accomplished similar goals and combined efforts to change society to better our needs and requirement for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

    Read More

  • The Battle of Gettysburg as the Turning Point of the Civil War

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    The South was fighting against a government that they thought was treating them unfairly. They believed the Federal Government was overtaxing them, with tariffs and property taxes making their lifestyles even more expensive than they already had been. The North was fighting the Civil War for two reasons, first to keep the Nation unified, and second to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the commander and chief of the Union or Northern forces, along with many other Northerners, believed that slavery was not only completely wrong, but it was a great humiliation to America. Once we can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout.

    Read More

  • American History, 1865-1900

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    The years after the civil war left one half of America, the north, satisfied and the other half, the south, mostly dissatisfied. Therefore the last third of the nineteenth century, 1865-1900, was a time period in which America was mending, repairing, improving, reshaping, and reconstructing its society, economy, culture, and policies. Basically it was changing everything it stood for. This continual change can be seen in the following events that took place during this time. These events are both causes and effects of why America is what it is today. These are some examples: the reconstruction of the south, the great movement towards the west, the agricultural revolution, the rise of industrialism, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, and America's growth to gaining world power. All of these are reasons and events that characterize America as being an ever-changing nation.

    Read More

  • Differences Between the North and South that Led to the Civil War

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Southern and Northern states varied on many issues, which eventually led them to the Civil War. There were deep economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. These differences stemmed from the interpretation of the United States Constitution on both sides. In the end, all of these disagreements about the rights of states led to the Civil War. There were reasons other than slavery for the South?s secession. The manifestations of division in America were many: utopian communities, conflicts over public space, backlash against immigrants, urban riots, black protest, and Indian resistance (Norton 234). America was a divided land in need reform with the South in the most need. The South relied heavily on agriculture, as opposed to the North, which was highly populated and an industrialized society. The South grew cotton, which was its main cash crop and many Southerners knew that heavy reliance on slave labor would hurt the South eventually, but their warnings were not heeded. The South was based on a totalitarian system.

    Read More

  • Second Great Awakening And Transcendentalism

    410 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Reform Movements was a significant era during the 19th century. A gradual era which was motivated by the Second Great Awakening and Transcendentalism. These Reform Movements were a principal portion of the Antebellum era, an era which began after the War of 1812 and the came to an end during the beginning of the civil war. This era incorporated issues such as; the fight for women's rights, free public education, a benevolence environment in prisons/asylums, the opposition of alcohol and slavery. Americans strive to resolve these issues in order to modify the United States chaotic organizational systems so that they can become more reasonable, but hope for those Americans who strive was extremely difficult. Overall every Reform Movement

    Read More

  • Economic Causes To The Civil War

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.

    Read More

  • Why Was There A Revolution In The 1800's

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although the American revolution had ended, the 1800’s were a time of great social revolutions. Over the course of the 19th century, the United States witnessed the start of several movements that forever changed American society such as the temperance movement, the abolition of slavery, and women’s rights. These causes are the basis for some of the movements that many Americans are still passionate about today.

    Read More

  • The Secession Crisis

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the years leading up to the Civil War, there was great conflict throughout the United States. The North and South had come to a crossroads at which there was no turning back. The Secession Crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and the South disagreed on slavery and what states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and rose up in revolt by forming the Confederate States of America.

    Read More

  • The Market Revolution

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    The antebellum era was a period that had great political change. During this period there were also technological and economic innovation. The Industrial Revolution had produced new inventions and methods of production. American inventors helped to transform the United States economy with new innovations of their own. This rapid evolution of manufacturing and upgraded farming had an extreme effect on society in America. This change is something that historians refer to as the Market Revolution. It is shown in this paper that the lives of the working class changed significantly. The Market Revolution and the rise of market capitalism influenced the working class by bringing them greater opportunities in the work field in the North, and new inventions encouraged planters to raise more cotton in the South.

    Read More

  • The Cotton Gin

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...hat Britain didn’t need as much cotton from the south. The problem was that the South only had two markets that bought cotton from them, the North and Britain. Since Britain didn’t need that much cotton at all, the South’s only buyer was the North. So they were depending on the North to buy their goods. The North took advantage of this, since the South had no other way of making a substantial amount of money besides cotton farming. The North decided that they could haggle the price of cotton down low. This made the south very very mad. This and combined with the slave issue eventually led to the Civil War.

    Read More

  • The Most Significant Events Of The 1920's

    86 Words  | 1 Pages

    One of the most significant eras to impact America were the 1920’s. It made the old America into a more modernize country, as it changed the economy, culture, social, political, artistic and cultural aspect of America.

    Read More

More about Causes Of American Society During The Antebellum Period

Open Document