Civil War Industrialization

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.

The South and the North followed different paths of economics, developing into two very different regions. Most of the population around the Civil War Era, lived in the rural area including farmland and small towns. While factories were built in both the regions, the vast majority of industrial manufacturing was being constructed in the North.

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

The North was a financial and industrial mecca, whereas the South had an agricultural economy based on the institution of slavery. Because Southern plantation owners feared that the powerful North would put an end to slavery, political leaders did what they could to ease the sectional conflict (Cite F). In the end of the war all the success went straight to the Northern states. The Confederacy was destroyed for good, and every state that had seceded was readmitted to the Union (Cite G). Later in the years the federal government came to a point on if they wanted to use outlaw slavery as an amendment.

The north and south began with similarities but the increasingly want by the south to implement slavery altered the south and made the differences between them and the North more predominant. They also disagreed on how large the governments role should be and wether the economy should be base don idustry or agriculture. In the North is there were 250,000 blacks out of 19 million. The north was more advanced and wanted an industry based economy with railroads and factories since that is where many of their jobs were. They used machine power and energy as opposed to in the south. Alexis Tocqueville stated that “trade and industry are bound to flourish more in the North than in the South”.[2] In the south, there were eleven million people; four million of which were slaves.[1] They were dependent on man power(slaves/farms) and were highly dependent on slave labor and agriculture. The south is where the largest amount of cotton was produced because of this they wanted a agriculture based economy because cotton became very popular during this time and accounted for half of all

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.

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

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.

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.

The Northern states had a largely industrial economy. The coastal states were filled with port cities to ship out manufactured goods to other places around the world. Capitalism was in full swing, with all sorts of factories popping up everywhere. The industrial

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)

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

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 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.