Civil War: Regional Differences In The United States

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.

In the beginning, the north and south had many things in common. The populations of both were predominantly of British decent and followed the Protestant faith. The inhabitants of both regions spoke the same language and believed in the racial superiority of whites. Where the division of the regions occurs is with the introduction of slavery to the colonies. Alexis de Tocqueville stated “that almost all of the differences which may be noticed between the character of the Americans in the Southern and Northern states have originated in slavery.” (###) It is these differences that shaped and developed the antebellum south.

The events that led to the time where compromise no longer seemed possible, starting the American Civil War, involved intense augmentation of sectionalism, dispute of states’ over federal rights, and the dispute of slavery. The North and the South’s differentiation in

First, the North and South had very different political beliefs. Southern society strayed from that of the North. The South’s fight

In the time just before the Civil War, the United States was one of the most successful nations in the world. The United States had become the world’s leading cotton producing country and had developed industry, which would in the future, surpass that of Great Britain. Also, the United States possessed an advanced railroad and transportation system. However, despite its successes, the United States was becoming increasingly divided. The North and the South had many distinct differences in terms of their social, cultural, and economic characteristics that brought about sectionalism and, eventually, the Civil War.

The North and the South have always had different viewpoints since the establishment of the original Thirteen Colonies. Their economic differences directly affected and shaped how the North and the South thrived in the early stages of American history. The North’s and the South’s economic views molded how their political and social viewpoints established, from the Southern states agricultural-oriented society, to the Northern states industrialized culture. The Northern states relied heavily on immigrants as an economic workforce.

In the South, African Americans were used as property and made to work all the time. On the contrary, in the North there were 1% of free African Americans while the most other people were whites.These also leads into the reason of why there were economical differences between the North and South.

Out of the 9 million people that lived in the Confederacy, about 4 million of those were slaves. That's almost 50%. The south mainly revolved around slaves. Their main crop was cotton and even that was picked and grown by slaves on big plantations. Out of the 22 million people who lived in the Union( North) only about 200,000 of those were slaves. That is only about 1% of the total population. Another way they were different on the topic of slaves was the South would even take it as far as teaching about how God never said there was anything wrong with having slaves. They teach that slavery is good and that because the slaves came to America they were introduced to Christianity. The North on the other hand, had many abolitionist which were people who thought slavery was wrong and taught about their beliefs. There were many cases of abolitionists movements in the

The post-Civil War South has been called the “New South.” In what ways did it succeed in reinventing itself? In what ways did it fail?

Leading up to the Civil war in the 1860’s there was a lot of differences between the North and the South. The South still treated blacks like slaves and hated that they breathed the same air as them. The North freed the slaves and were somewhat okay with the blacks. Racism was a big thing for both the North and South but was bigger in the South. Even though the racial difference was a big thing there was still a lot of major differences like the economy, culture, and the cities.

Prior to the election of 1860, it was obvious that the North and South exhibited characteristics of two different nations, even though they were termed the “United States of America.” Their views on political, economical, and social aspects on life resembled anything but a united nation with goals and aspirations regarding unity and equality. Due to regionalism in both the North and South and their development up until this point, Lincoln’s success in the election of 1860, the different views on equality, and contrasting beliefs on individualism acted as a catalyst ultimately causing the Southern leaders to secede and later declare war against the Union.

The Northern and Southern United States in the early 1800’s. Despite the United States having the strong unification they had shaped, between 1800 and 1850, it seemed as though the nation would be divided in half. Although the economies in both the North and South were flourishing, there was a good bit of differences between the Northern and Southern states. Some of the most obvious differences between the two dealt with its various climates and natural features, the economy, its social structure, as well as its social attitudes, and daily life. The first difference between the Northern and Southern states is their diverse climates and natural landscape features.

In the early years of the 19th century, slavery was more than ever turning into a sectional concern, such that the nation had essentially become divided along regional lines. Based on economic or moral reasoning, people of the Northern states were increasingly in support of opposition to slavery, all the while Southerners became united to defend the institution of slavery. Brought on by profound changes including regional differences in the pattern of slavery in the upper and lower South, as well as the movement of abolitionism in the North, slavery in America had transformed from an issue of politics into a moral campaign during the period of 1815-1860, ultimately polarizing the North and the South to the point in which threats of a Southern disunion would mark the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 (Goldfield et. al, The American Journey, p. 281).

In 1861, a horrific war began. Nobody had any idea that this war would become the deadliest war in American history. It wasn’t a regular war, it was a civil war opposing the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South.. The Civil War cost many people’s lives on the battlefield and beyond. In addition it cost an extreme amount of money for the nation which possibly could have been avoided if the war had turned to happen a little differently.

America is a country that allows people freedom and equality. In the Declaration of Independence, it states that “all men are created equal” and most people agreed with that. However, there were a few people who thought that slaves were not part of the equality factor. Those people, who were mostly slave owners, saw the African Americans as property and did not see them as equals. Since there was such a big difference in views, it created many tensions between the people. Some people wanted to get rid of slavery and give them freedom and equality, some wanted to get rid of slavery but not make slaves equal to other people, and others wanted to keep slavery as it is. Mostly, there was a disagreement between the South and the North and since there is a difference in other factors such as political and economic, these things began to create tensions and drive them farther apart. During 1783-1859, there were numerous cultural, political, and religious tensions and differences between the United States North and South which led to the unforgettable American Civil War. For this essay, I will be using six sources to support my thesis.