Essay On The Economic Differences Between The North And South

Among the economies of the north and south arose many conflicts that led to the tension of the Civil War in 1861. In the 1800s, slavery was a major sectional issue. Northerners were strongly opposed to slavery unlike the south's belief that slavery was economically beneficial.

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

By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.

Cotton was still a major industry in the South after the Civil War, but iron and tobacco became strong competitors. There was an increase in Southern cotton mills. In 1800, there were one hundred and sixty mills; in 1900, there were over four hundred mills. There were, however, racist hiring practices. Very few blacks acquired jobs. This was justified by mill owners because whites suffered in competition with blacks for agricultural jobs. The counterargument may be that they were not jobs, because the blacks were slaves and not paid. Southerners found large coal and iron ore reserves, and thereby had a tremendous growth in iron and steel mills. Eventually though, these mills became controlled by foreign investors and Northerners around 1900. Tobacco was traditionally grown in the South, but factories for processing were not developed until post Civil War in 1900. Outside capitalists also controlled these industries. The Northerners reconstructed the Southern economy—one that they controlled—but did not change much in the South itself, which still had multiple racial and social issues.

Even though the North and the South origins were both from Europe, their customs and living habits were different. The North and the South began to notice these differences as they broke away from Britain in the Revolutionary War. The North and South emerged into two different regions, due to their various differences. These differences included the geography, the economy, the social and classification status, and transportation.

In the beginning of the 20th century, most of the South, geographically, was inhabited by African Americans. African-Americans have been stuck in poverty in the past, and they did not have any job opportunities, due to racial prejudice. They have suffered ever since they were slaves picking up cotton and when the Ku Klux Klan was around. African Americans grew in fear in the South. Because of this, the North needed workers after World War I African-Americans jumped at the chance of moving to the North because the demand of employees had gone down. Blacks thought the only way to leave their oppression was to travel to the North. Many African-Americans moved to places like Chicago, Detroit, and especially Harlem

For the most part many historians tend to throw the idea of Southern manufacturing in the backseat since the North had a firm grasp on textile factories. The reason for this view is that many historians appeal to the idea of a Southern economy based on cotton and agriculture. However, this is not the case and many historians have failed to see this critical power move by Southern entrepreneurs. In many instances, business owners from the South would invest in internal improvements of textile mills.

“It [drove] a deeper wedge between the northern and southern wings of both political parties,” states Robert Kagan (Document 2B). The Civil War occurred because the nation was divided. Some of the divisions were caused by their distinct economies. In addition, they were politically divided by their opposing views. Throughout the 1850s, tension began to increase because of these differences, eventually leading to the Civil War. The two most influential differences that eventually led to the Civil War were the North and the South had diverse economies and opposing political views on slavery.

Differences between Southern and Northern Colonies The north and South colonies that make up the United States had many differences that led the start of the civil war. Differences in politics, culture, attitudes, and economies caused a division between the North and the South. There are a few differences that played a major role in creating the hostility between the two regions.

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.

When we look back at the sectional division of the North and the South in the mid 19th century, one issue stands out as causing the most tension, slavery. However, there were other issues as well, but they all stem back to slavery because the South depended on that in order to have a successful economy. Despite their disagreements over the practice and laws regarding slavery, that reason alone led the South to secede from the Union, which caused the Civil War.

Factories in the North attracted former subsistence farmers because it was more efficient to buy food rather than to grow it. Systems like the Lowell System employed young women, provided them with room and board, and paid the women for their work in the factory. With the rise of numerous new American inventions, machines became more efficient and the United States had soon developed one of the best industrial economies in the world. Because of the need for effective transportation to distribute goods, new forms of transportation such as elaborate railroad and canal systems emerged. The south, on the other hand, clung to the slave-based plantation system. The economy was based largely on the production of raw materials, mainly cotton. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin allowed the cultivation of short staple cotton to bring Southern planters great success. Because the cotton industry was so lucrative, Southerners had no reason to become industrialized. However, the industrial economy of the North and the agrarian economy of the South led to a colonial relationship between the two, meaning that the South sold raw materials to the North in exchange for manufactured goods. The system put the South in an inferior position to the North, which obviously upset Southerners and led to greater tension between the two regions.

During the first half of the 19th century, there were a variety of issues that caused social and economic differences between the North and the South. Among the variety were the issues of tariffs, immigration and slavery. All of these differences between the two sides just piled on top of one another to form into a huge conflict to fuel the growing crisis that was already brewing between the North and South.

Differences between the North and the South were very apparent even before the American Revolution. Social, political and economic structures differed between the two regions, and only widened in the 1800s. In 1861, when the Civil War erupted much of the conflict surrounded sectional differences. The biggest cause of the Civil War was the need and want for slavery due to industrial or agricultural societies.

Sectional conflict between the North and South was the very platform of the birth of the Civil War. Slavery was a prominent dispute that played a large role in the differences throughout the U.S. at this time, but there were other causes as well including economic and social differences and the election of Abraham Lincoln. In the midst of various events in the 1850s, it was the southern secession that began the true separation of the Union and the Confederacy, which showed the reality and quickness of the arrival of the Civil War in the United States.