“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture” (C. Vann Woodward, 1951). Between the end of the War of 1812 in 1815 and the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, the United States experienced a forty-six year period without war called the Antebellum; antebellum literally meaning “before war”. Obviously, the North and the South were different for many reasons, however, they did have similarities as well, both to be explored. The North, known as the Union, …show more content…
Because they had more abundant natural resources, northern goods production flourished and produced a massive economic upswing. Although, some businesses relied on agriculture, the majority of the North was spotted with large cities, factories, and urban areas. It was difficult to manage farms in the north because of the short growing season and colder temperatures. In fact, the percentage of laborers working in agriculture dropped drastically from 70% to 40% between 1800 and 1860. The water-powered factories, however, thrived. Slave labor had died out in the North and was replaced by the overwhelming majority of immigrants from Europe looking for jobs in the factories of the North. As stated by Civilwar.org, “...seven out of every eight [immigrants]...” (“Overview: North and South”) settled in northern states instead of the South. Because of the influx in population, northern cities often became crowded and dirty, nonetheless, the cities continued to develop as trading centers. In addition to factories, the cities hosted many churches and schools. Actually, Northern children were moderately more prone to attend …show more content…
80% of all labor force in the South worked on farms. Southern men not working in agriculture had careers in the military. The long, warm southern summers with significant amounts of rainfall created perfect conditions for large plantations and small farmsteads. Plantation estates were owned by the wealthy upper-class, whereas, the farms were owned by the middle and lower classes. Plantations were self-sufficient and cultivated most of the cash crops including cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar cane, and indigo. As a matter of fact, as said by John Green in Crash Course U.S. History, “...three-quarters [of the world’s cotton] came from the American south…” (CrashCourse, 00:01:08-00:01:11). The success of the South’s economy was predominantly due to the large population of Africans, however, of the four-million blacks in the South, not all were slaves, but the crops grown in the south were almost always sown, worked, and harvested by captured Africans. Although, two-thirds of the white population of the South did not own slaves, many rented and borrowed them like property, to work their land. Most white southerners argued that slavery was essential to the South’s economy and some insisted it benefited the slaves. By 1860, the southern states’ “‘peculiar institution’...[became] inextricably tied” (“Overview: North and South”) within
In “Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question” James McPherson argues that the North and the South are two very different parts of the country in which have different ideologies, interests, and values. Mcpherson writes this to show the differences between the north and the south. He gives perspectives from other historians to show how the differently the differences were viewed. These differences included the north being more industrialized while the south was more agricultural. He gives evidence to how the differences between the north and south came together as the south produced tobacoo, rice, sugar and cotton, which was then sent to the north to be made into clothing or other fabrics. Mcpherson analyzes the differences
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.
Slavery is perhaps the most polarizing subject of American history. Because of this, actual conditions of slavery are biased and marred by personal opinion. The abolitionists made use of the plights of slave in order to push their propaganda whereas the pro-slavery apologists maintained ignorance regarding the treatment of slaves. Because of these varied perspectives, the sources regarding the true nature of slavery are littered with bias. This bias leaves the modern historian trying to decipher the truth behind manipulated propaganda tales. This was the norm until 1956. It was this year in which Kenneth M. Stampp released his book entitled, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. Stampp successfully managed to create a book regarding slavery in the South without inserting his own personal bias. Because of this, Stampp was able to conclude that slavery was used primarily to exploit labor and to produce substantial revenue gains.
“The contrast in the relative prominence of slavery between the Upper South and the Lower South reflects the adverse health conditions and arduous labor requirements of lowland rice cultivation, whereas tobacco farming continued to be attractive to free family farmers as well as to slave owners”(Engerman, Sutch, & Wright, 2004). The lower South depended on their slaves more than the Upper because they were in the process of cropping tobacco. The Upper South had to keep up with the lower south, because they had to focus on their slave trade that would build and expand their plantations. During this era, the diverse between these two regions were more concerned with the values of slaves. The values of slave price can increase because of high demands between the upper and the lower South. As the upper South was coming up short, the slave profession took off. The slave profession helped the Upper South, yet there were numerous deformities. The slave percentage was at the end of its usefulness of significance “in the Upper South” significance it had a weaker understanding of community reliability than in the cotton areas. This made the upper south separate on what the future may hold. It was not clear on whether if the future was based on the Deep South’s financial growth between the North and the
1. The insight that each of these sources offers into slave life in the antebellum South is how slaves lived, worked, and were treated by their masters. The narratives talk about their nature of work, culture, and family in their passages. For example, in Solomon Northup 's passage he describes how he worked in the cotton field. Northup said that "An ordinary day 's work is considered two hundred pounds. A slave who is accustomed to picking, is punished, if he or she brings less quantity than that," (214). Northup explains how much cotton slaves had to bring from the cotton field and if a slave brought less or more weight than their previous weight ins then the slave is whipped because they were either slacking or have no been working to their
These owners lived off the labor of sharecroppers and slaves, charging high dues for use of their land. The Southern or Confederate Army was made up of a group of white males fighting for their independence from federal northern dictates (The History Place Battle of Gettysburg 1). The Union economy was based on manufacturing, and even the minorities in the North were better off than those in the South most of the time. Northern politicians wanted tariffs, and a large army. Southern plantation owners wanted the exact opposite.
The southern economy was largely dependent on slaves, who worked on the numerous plantations of the South. Moreover, the main purpose of slavery in the South was for the cultivation of these cotton plantations. (Doc 4) For this reason, southerners believed
Part of the mythology every schoolchild in the United States learns…is that the colony of Virginia achieved quick prosperity upon the basis of slaves and tobacco. Thus, “the South” is assumed to have existed as an initial settlement, with little change until the cataclysm of the Civil War in 1861.
Secondly, the demand for cotton grew tremendously as cotton became an important raw material for the then developing cotton industries in the North and Britain. The growing of cotton revived the Southern economy and the plantations spread across the south, and by 1850 the southern U.S produced more than 80% of cotton all over the world. As this cotton based economy of the south grew so did the slave labor to work in these large scale plantations since they were more labor-intensive...
Near the end of the Antebellum Era, tensions and sectionalism increased as the states argued over what was constitutional. The South had later seceded from the United States and had become the Confederacy of America while the North had remained as the Union. The South had fully supported states’ rights while the north had strongly disapproved it. However, westward expansion, southern anger with the abolitionists, and the secession of the South that had destroyed the feeling of unity in the country because of the disagreement over slavery had been the main factors to the cause of the Civil War. Therefore, since slavery was the primary reason for the discontent in the country, it had been the primary cause of the Civil War.
The North and South were forming completely different economies, and therefore completely different geographies, from one another during the period of the Industrial Revolution and right before the Civil War. The North’s economy was based mainly upon industrialization from the formation of the American System, which was producing large quantities of goods in factories. The North was becoming much more urbanized due to factories being located in cities, near the major railroad systems for transportation of the goods, along with the movement of large groups of factory workers to the cities to be closer to their jobs. With the North’s increased rate of job opportunities, many different people of different ethnic groups and classes ended up working together. This ignited the demise of the North’s social order. The South was not as rapidly urbanizing as the North, and therefore social order was still in existence; the South’s economy was based upon the production of cotton after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Large cotton plantations’ production made up the bulk of America’s...
“The two sections diverged in other ways industrialization of the North went hand in hand with the expansion of the transportation system, so canals and railroads were built. In 1860 the South had 9,000 miles of railroad, while the North had 22,000 miles. Industrialization also required a financial network: banks, insurance companies and corporations. The South needed only cotton factors to represent the interests of the slave-owning plantations” (“Encyclopedia of American Social History”). The changes in the population and demographics in the United States in the years leading up to the American Civil War were even more dramatic. The following quote outlines the dramatic demographic changes affecting the two distinct sections of the country. “While the South was slow to change, the North had enough change for both sections. Prior to the Civil War, the United States as a whole was an agrarian society, but the North was becoming industrialized and urban. In 1860, 10% of Southerners lived in urban areas; as compared with 25% of Northerners. The Southern white labor force remained 80 percent agricultural in the first half of the
In the north, machines, interchangeable parts, and mass production were fast becoming a way of life. Northerners began building factories for mass production. These first factories were used for making textiles and later evolved to manufacturing a wide variety of goods. This created several opportunities for jobs. And with immigrants flooding in from Europe, finding employment was no problem. The factory system was efficient and inexpensive for the north to employ a large work force.
In the beginning of the 1800s, economic diversities between the two different regions had also grown. By the year 1860, cotton was the chief crop for the South; it also represented fifty-seven percent of all American exports. The prosperity of cotton fulfilled the South's reliance on the plantation system and its crucial elementslavery.
The population of the North consisted of forward thinking individuals. They realized that a change had to be made from agriculture to industry if they were to prosper and for them to use free labor to accomplish prosperity would be to take a step backwards. This ushered in an small and early Industrial Revolution. Factories and mills that produced finished goods sprung up all over the Northern United States along major waterways. These factories produced fabric, iron, machinery, weapons. Raw materials such as cotton was bought from the South and then sold back to them in the form of clothes. Iron workers made iron railroad ties for the growing railroads across the country. More machinery was being built than ever before. These machines were able to multiply the work that could be accomplished. These industries drew in people from rural areas because they were paying for work. As more people came, they settled around the factori...