Compare and contrast economic, social, and political developments in the North and South between 1800-1860. How do you account for the divergence between the two sections? During 1880 to 1860, The United States of America went through social, political and economic changes, which affected the North and South in different ways. The economy of the South depended primarily on slaves. Its settlers had plantations of cotton, which was very profitable at that time, but they needed a cheap labour force to work their lands (slaves). Living in the South meant either having a lot of money to invest on lands (for crop plantations) or working in the only available jobs, which were done by slaves. Since not everyone was able to afford high …show more content…
Transportation networks took longer to develop in the South since they used canals and waterways to transport their crops. However, the North needed routes and transports for they were many and the kind of jobs available there were different and versified. The fact that the North was more urbanized and industrialized, and the South more rural, also meant that the way of life was rather different. People in the North lived in cities or towns, which had recreational spaces. Different urban sports were done in the North, which were not common in the South for slaves were not given free time. Women were treated differently than men in each region. In the South, slaves had the same demands regarding their work and the same hours (from sun to sun, that is long hours and large work), no matter their sex. However, in the North, women had less demanding jobs and also worked less hours than men. During this time, both regions wanted to enlarge their lands, though they had different motivations. The South wanted to expand fast and take slaves with them for the growth of cotton since it was profitable. In other words, they wanted to protect the survival of cotton crops and to go on with the system of slaves in new territories. The North, however, wanted to
The North attracted many people for religious reasons and eventually developed a profitable shipbuilding industry based on the natural forests and harbors. More people who were interested in profit inhabited the South. This lead to the importation of a lot of slaves. Women's and slaves rights differed too, the South had fewer women so they were treated better, and the North had fewer slaves so they were not treated as bad. But overall both regions profited and lived happily off their
In the North, unlike in the South, people road the railroad on a regular basis, because they had thousands of miles of track laid out. People in the North were also able to ride aboard steam boats. This was an advantage to those in the North because they were able to ship goods to places and receive them efficiently and semi cheaply. In the South, horseback and covered wagons were the common mode of transportation. This was a major disadvantage to the many cotton growers in the South. With the south supplying 75 percent of the worlds cotton( Teach us history.org) at this time transporting cotton was difficult.Some of these economical differences also lead to political
The economies of the North and South were vastly different leading up to the Civil War. Money was equivalent to power in both regions. For the North, the economy was based on industry as they were more modern and self-aware. They realized that industrialization was progress and it could help rid the country of slave labor as it was wrong. The North’s population had a class system but citizens could move within the system, provided they made the money that would allow them to move up in class. The class system was not as rigid as it was in the South. By comparison, the South wanted to hold on to its economic policy. In doing so, the practice of slavery kept the social order firmly in place. The economic factors, social issues and a growing
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
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.
The main difference between the Northern and Southern states was that the North was mostly populated by small farms and larger towns and cities with mercantile and factory-based economies, in contrast the South was populated by large plantations and had relatively fewer large cities and few factories. Since the north had significantly more factories, they tended to trade more manufactured goods instead of raw materials like the south. The south’s economy was heavily reliant on the labor of slaves, the north had slaves as well but it did not really compare to that of the
In the early 1800s, America changed in a lot of ways in a short amount of time. The change that occurred was, for the most part, the result of the industrial development. The industrial advancements in the early 1800s had a huge amount of consequences, both positive and negative. But the industrial development from 1800 to 1860 affected the North and the South in hugely different ways. The prominent differences eventually caused an amazing amount of tension between the two regions as they moved in completely separate directions. Mainly, the North and the South differentiated when it came to cultures, economies, and political views.
The most important difference between the north and south was the issue of slavery. The South was primarily agricultural, and the southern economy was based upon the existence of large family farms known as
The economy in the South was based on plantations, mostly bales of cotton that were managed by slaves (Doc. B). Their economy was so great that, in 1857, out of the $279,000,000 the U.S. produced of domestic products, the South produced $158,000,000 out of articles like cotton and rice, which could not be made in the North; perhaps this is what lead them to believe they were so powerful. (Doc. D). However, they also felt they depended too much on the North for articles of utility and adornment, as well as rail-roads, canals, and other public improvements (Doc. C). The North, on the contrary, worked primarily on industries and factories. (Doc. B). The conflict between the two came when the South wanted to leave the Constitution and become its own country (Doc. E), which meant that the U.S. would lose a huge amount of its economy, although this was not the main reason why the North did not like the idea of the South leaving the U.S. The North and the South had distinguishably different economies, with the South’s being rural and the North’s industrial, so any changes in tariffs mostly benefited the North rather than the South, which is what mostly upset the
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.
Northern society differed much from Southern society. In the North, the economy relied scarcely on agriculture and rather was more dependent on industry. The North was transitioning much quicker than the south into a new and well-developed country. It had built roads and canals and had very quickly connected the entire north through transportation.
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.
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
Slavery was something that became interwoven into the South’s economy considering it was a one crop economy that depended on cotton. Therefore it depended on slaves, even if only a fraction of the population actually owned slaves. Meanwhile, the northern economy was more focused on industry rather than agriculture. Their industries would purchase raw cotton and turn it into a finished good. The North and South therefore also had major differences in their economic attitudes. The dispute over slavery and the future of it led to secession, which brought a war where the Northern and Western states fought to preserve the Union and the Southern territories fought to establish their independence as a new confederation under a constitution of its own.