To start with, I would like to address some distinctions between the South and North, and then expound them later in the assignment. First off, cotton was overrated in the South – meaning, they put too much stock in its survivability and worth (all their eggs in one basket). Secondly, there was a clear difference between the South and North in ways of politics, power, social structure, and economy (Schultz, 2013 & Pessen, 1980). King Cotton – the slogan southerners used to describe the importance of cotton – in their eyes (Pessen, 1980). I know I am jumping ahead, but it is important to review this because it sets the stage for the attitude and how life was in the South. The South believed cotton was so important that it would cause Britain and France to support the South during the Civil War because it was such a valuable crop (at least for the moment). Cotton ruled the day in the antebellum South and created a divide not only with the North, but also within the South. This dependence on cotton made a few wealthy, and the rest just getting by. There was no diversity in the South – both crop and human. The South did not have the influx of immigrants like the North and Midwest, and suffered because of it. Industry tended to steer away from the South because the workforce was …show more content…
In actuality, very few farmers had grand plantations, servants, and abundant slaves. For the most part, there were two classes of farmers in the south, the wealthy plantation owners and yeoman farmers. Yeoman farmers made up the majority of farmers and were mostly self-sufficient, living on small farms with their families, possessed no slaves, were in remote areas and missed out on the Market Revolution. According to our text, about 20 percent of adult southern farmers could not read (Schultz, 2013). Many were consumed in their farms and were isolated; they were stuck in their culture, families, religion and
3. Agriculture, “economic lifeblood of the South” was crippled a. Cotton no longer grown b. slave-labor system = collapsed c. seed scarce; livestock driven off by Unionists i. Only until 1870 did new Southern land produce cotton at the level of 1860 4. Planter aristocrats were in poverty, faced burnt mansions, lost investments and worthless land a. $2 billion
The plantation system discouraged a healthy diversification of agriculture and particularly on manufacturing. Southern planters resented the North for growing wealthy at their hard work. Southerners had to deal with commissions, interest to northern middlemen, bankers, agents, and shippers.
Be that as it may, the principle fight between the North and South, and the most passionate one, was over the issue of subjugation. America was a horticultural country and products, for example, cotton were sought after around the globe. Cotton developed well in the southern atmosphere,
The South considered slaves to be an economic necessity. According to a chart that displays the number of slaves and the amount of cotton produced, the amount of cotton produced appears to be proportional to the number of slaves in the South (Document A). Cotton, which is the main cash crop of the South, is dependent on the slaves picking it. If slavery is abolished, the South’s economy would suffer severely. The South’s fears only increased with the fervor of the Northern abolitionists.
The south had a smaller population that relied on exportation of tobacco and cotton as their main source of income. The more land and slaves one owned the wealthier they were. The south was wealthy and growing but rejected the ideologies of the north. They wanted to keep the rural and conservative lifestyle. The southerners did not encourage education, manufacturing, and technological advances the way the northerners did in fact, a small percentage of southerners were
Furthermore, the South had little preexisting industry and lacked an infrastructure for dispersing goods (Perman, 14). From an early point in the war the Union army cut off railways and blockaded Southern ports, and roads in the South were primitive. Farmers were forced to contend with government controls on production and marauding thieves who would take whatever they could from them. With no means of transporting goods and no slave labor, Southerners could barely produce enough to feed their families and even if they were
To this point, you can probably see that there is a clear split between what the North thinks and what the South thinks. Is it just me or our you thinking, “In this corner, we have the Northerners, and in this corner we have the slave working South!”. As you probably already know, the North supported freedom and absolutely despised the south who supported slavery. One of the acts that really showed this, was the attack on Harpers Ferry. The north was so disgusted with the south that they published newspapers against slavery. Some of these newspapers included “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Also, “The Liberator”was published by William Lloyd Garrison.
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
ship the cotton but this meant that the South had to pay the North to
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.
Southern economy was the center of plantation that cultivated cotton. Many the rich started to carve the plantation to earn money by exporting cotton. They needed a lot of labor and slavery was proper to use. The majority of white southerners did not own slaves because planters monopolized the best land. They could not help taking possession of the land that was not proper to cultivate cotton. Most of them earned a living by self-sufficiency even though the slave population was growing: from 697,624 in 1790 to 3,953,760 in 1860.
The North and South were very different from each other. Industrialization was happening in the North, while large-scale cotton planting was happening in the South. The South sold their crops to England in exchange for inexpensive factory-made goods produced in Europe. As a result of industrialization, Northern Factories began producing many of the goods that were already being produced in Europe. Thus, the North started to tax the South on any goods imported from Europe, so that the South would buy goods from the North. These unfair taxes angered the South, and contributed largely to its anti-North attitude (Civil War
One of them was a result of Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin made it easier and less time consuming to pick the seeds from the cotton. This made the cotton crop very profitable. This invention caused many plantations to switch from other crops to cotton. This shift to the cotton crop caused the South’s economy to become a one crop economy. The shift also meant for a greater need for cheap labor, and this where the large amounts of slaves came into play. The North was based in industry and not agriculture. The North purchased the raw cotton and used it to make finished goods. This variation between the North and South created a large difference in
The South and the North are both very different which eventually led to differences between them. One major difference was that the South was great for farming and the North was not. The South had great climate for planting. In Source 1, it says, “The fertile soil and warm climate of the South made it ideal for large-scale farms and crops like tobacco and cotton,” (Source 1). The South was able to grow crops where the North was very industrial.
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