Civil War Industrialization

In short, the South was a polar opposite of the North. They were engrained with a greedy, stubborn and selfish

Both areas had many farmers, but the south was successful with big plantations. The southern economy depended on agriculture while the North was based on technological advancement. The North successful developed many industries, while the south improved their farming methods (Roark, 7). The south farmers established huge plantations for cash crop production especially cotton. In addition, slavery became an important factor that provided

Throughout the 19th century, the distinctions between the North and South in the United States were controversial. Prior to the Civil War, the North consisted of business owners and middle-class men. The South consisted of mostly farmers. The North was industrial, using railroads and factories. The South was agricultural, with mostly farms and plantations. The North paid their labor workers. The South used slaves. Not only did their opposing views on slavery and the separation of the two cultures, tensions arose that eventually led to one of the most gruesome wars in history.

The North and the South have significant differences between their geography, economy, transportation, and most importantly, way of life. The North was strongly against slavery but on the other hand, the South was did want to continue the practice of slavery which led to major conflict between these two regions. The slavery in the South had led to new technological advances such as the cotton gin by Eli Whitney which picked more cotton at a time and still had more efficiency. This also caused a major increase in slavery within the southern regions. While this was happening in the south, the northern states were developing an industrialized system which would create more profit. An example of this would be of Francis Cabot Lowell’s invention of a factory system that brought manufacturing steps together in one place to increase efficiency. As you can see, the north and south had different methods of living their lives, but eventually it led to conflict between one another.

One of the most striking differences between the North and the South was the climate and geography. The North’s climate was full of warm summers and cold winters; the terrain was rocky and hilly, which wasn’t good for farming. But the North did have little farms. Most of the forest was used for shipbuilding, and cities were used for trading centers. The rivers were fast and shallow which made it hard to navigate. Also in the North people used waterpower to run factories, because it was a cheap source of energy. The South was somewhat different; the climate was generally warm and sunny. The summers were long and hot, and the winters were pretty mild. Due to the South’s climate they were able to grow different crops in large amounts, unlike the North. The south had large farms, called plantations. In the South cities developed near rivers, because of rich soil which made it easier for them to farm.

There were several issues that contributed to the split between the northern and southern states. Among these were the deep social, economic and political differences. The split could be traced as far back as the early 1800’s, just as the industrial revolution was beginning. It’s effects on the north and the south caused the economic split. As the north was becoming more industrialized; the south began to rely heavily on slave labor. This was one of the main reasons, as the southern view on slavery differed greatly from the North. These views were based on drastically different interpretations of the constitution.

ship the cotton but this meant that the South had to pay the North to

During the Civil War, the advances of the Industrial Revolution introduced great changes in the industrial and technological development. Both the North and the South created many advances in railroad and water transportation. The Union, however, was far more advanced technologically than the Confederate states . Consequently, the North made greater and more effective use of progress in weapons, communication, transportation and medicine than South . Although the industrial development made the nation very widely known, both the south and the north were divided because their differences.

While the North was more industrial, the South was more rural. Slavery was a much more common practice in the South. This situation quickly escalated into a civil war between the North and the South.

Another difference that separated the two regions included the prominence of foreign immigration in the North. Most immigrants went to work in the industries and textile mills in the North because the South was using slave labor (indentured servitude was much less prominent after late-eighteenth century). In addition, the North was much more urban-based because all of the factories had to be located in big cities where more people could work in them (too hard to have factories in rural areas where there were fewer people). The immigrants in the North especially came in handy because they helped fight for the Union in the Civil War in exchange for immediate citizenship. The fact that people were all near each other allowed the North to acquire strong central governments. The South, on the other hand, was rural-based, with its power distributed throughout a wide space of land. The culture of the North began to evolve as different types of people worked alongside each other, while the South held onto its very feudal-like social structure.

The Southerners have a land/farming- based economy, but the Northerners had a more factory- based economy. It became a problem when the election came, electing Lincoln as president, who was an abolitionist and a Northerner. This means that he would try to end slavery everywhere, regardless of the fact that the South practically need slavery to live. Therefore, without slavery allowed (or soon to be), the Southerners would have a very hard time earning their money while the North had no struggle. This being another reason for the South's soon secession from the

While both the North and the South had stable and confident economic systems, the North was much more industrialized and diversified and with a better transportation system they not only had the ability for mass production but also the means for speedy and

The north was very urban and industrial while the south remained rural and agricultural. (Goldfield Pg. 391) The north had a big drop in the percentage of agriculture workforce it went from 68 percent to 40 percent, from 1800-1860 which was a significant drop. meanwhile the south had a minor increase from 82 percent to 84 percent. Northerners farm workers during the economic differences period relied a lot on machinery; this allowed the north to have a big increase in manufacturing products this allowed a big increase in industrial production in the North unlike the South who depended a lot on labor intensive agriculture.

There were also economic differences between both regions. The Southern states were agrarian states, which depended on agriculture rather than industrialization. “Slavery was essential to the South’s agrarian economic system, dedicated to producing raw materials for manufacture by others.” (Axelrod 15)

Northern American states were conflicted by Southern American states over the concept of slavery. The North was industrialized, using machinery to rapidly produce products at a cheaper price. Factories decreased the need for slavery, as machines could work at a more effective rate. Thus the northern economy of America was generally based on manufacturing.