Sectional Differences Between The North And South After The Civil War

From colonial times there were differences in geography that gave rise to variations in culture and economy in the United States. Due to the differing characteristics, a sectional economy molded the United States into two distinct regions: the north and the south. The north, a commercial society, which supported industry and commerce while the south, an agrarian civilization, flourished in the production of raw materials with use of slaves. The two economies were both self-supporting and capable to create a stronger, more productive nation. The regional differences sought to build America, in turn threatened to destroy it. Many Historians believe that the Civil War was constructed over the issue of slavery. However, the concerns of states'

Between Constitutional ratification and southern secession, the United States increasingly developed sectional tensions between North and South. Regional differences and territorial expansion created the conflict of interests between the states. Proslavery southern and antislavery northern states envisioned their economical and political future in different ways. The question of slavery during the westward expansion was decisive for politics of both sides because more slave states would create voting advantages for the slaveholding states in the Congress. Northwestern territories were occupied by the new settlers from New England who established urbanized culture and infrastructure in Upstate New York and the Upper Northwest. New settlers in the Lower South organized farms and plantations to develop agricultural sector. Slavery was the main labor force in the South. With technological and transportation development, it became easier to migrate in the search of new territories. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the North supported industrialization and manufacturing, while the South was mostly focused on the agricultural development. The whole economy of the southern states depended largely on the cotton production. For many years, the issues of slavery, human rights and racial inequality were the main topics for discussion by people, and the expansion of borders in the beginning of the nineteenth century intensified discussions around these questions. The

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.

ship the cotton but this meant that the South had to pay the North to

After Independence from Britain, the southern and northern sections of the United States began to separate as they aged, mainly due to conflicts of interests. Even during the creation of the Unites States constitution, the founding fathers debated slavery. Slaves were considered 3/5ths of a person when regarding representation based on population. This lessened the amount of seats southern states would hold in the House of Representatives, lessening their influence on political matters before the civil war. The Northerners had a heavier influence on laws, leading to the passage of laws in their favor. The Northern section of the United States of America became focused on manufacturing while the southern sections became dependent on agriculture, mainly cash crops harvested by slave labor. Although the States rights versus Federal rights conflict played a role in the cause of the Civil War, a major contributing factor was the institution of slavery and how it should be implemented in the United States.

Before the Civil War, the North and the South were very different. Their values were completely different. The North was more industrialized, urbanized, and was more reliant on wage labor. On the other hand, the South continued to be a rural, agricultural society, and depended on slavery to harvest the cash crops that they made a living off of. Such big differences brought about the Civil War. Was there something that could have been done to avoid the Civil War in the first place?

Approximately 180,000 Negros served in the Union during the Civil War. The Negro Soldier was overall a good one. One example was at the Assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina. The 54th Massachusetts Colored troops led the assault and scaled the fort’s parapet and were only driven back after brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The Negro faced some discrimination in the Union Army in areas such as pay. It wasn’t until June 15th, 1864 that the Congress granted equal pay to Negro troops. Several Negro soldiers earned the Medal of Honor. The North attitude towards Negro troops was mainly positive, while the South did not want Negros to serve in the Confederate Army. It wasn’t until the Confederates were running low on men did they allow Negros to serve. The Negros serving in the North felt it as their duty to serve and support the cause for their own freedom.

One of these economic differences was how goods were produced. While both the North and South were successful in the production of goods, the North was much more efficient. This was because they used manufacturing industries instead of farms, which were used by the South more. The North depended on the South for farming and the South depended on the North for machinery. For example, in Document 2, Virginian Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams from Massachusetts, a letter stating, “For finer things, we shall depend on your northern manufacturers. Of these companies we have none. We use little machinery.” To clarify, the South had very little machines and companies, therefore, they depended greatly on the North who were very advanced in this technology. Nevertheless, the North also depended greatly on the South, who were almost entirely run on agriculture. The South’s agricultural items were sent to the North to be manufactured. For instance, the South harvested cotton, which was then sent over to the North to be made into textiles. As conflict arose between the North and South, the economy would suffer as they relied so heavily on each other. Likewise, the North and South had different forms of labor. As aforementioned, the North’s economy included a great deal of manufacturing, while the South did not. In the North, for the most part, slavery was abolished. The North relied on free labor, which was the ideology that one could work for payment and that one had the opportunity to raise this wage through hard work. In the South, however, slavery was a key to the economy. At first, the southern slaves had to separate the seeds from cotton fibers by hand, but with Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, cotton could be separated by the machine. The cotton gin revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process. Now, slaves could process more cotton. However, with more

The Civil War had revolutionary effects on American society, the most important of which was the destruction of slavery, the fundamental institution of southern society. The emancipation of America’s 4 million slaves, in numbers, scale, and economic value, was far greater than any other emancipation of slaves or serfs (in Russia) in the world. At the war’s beginning, Lincoln identified the North’s cause with the cause of free labor. But Lincoln also initially stated that the conflict was not being fought to end or limit slavery, but to preserve the Union. He wanted to keep the border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri in the Union and build the broadest possible base of support for the war in the North.

The South heavily relied on slavery to keep their economy stable, although not their only source of money, but by abolishing slavery and making it illegal it would damage their economy quite badly. And so this caused a lot of tension between the North and South because they were very different economically. The South is much more agricultural, and is reliant upon exports as well. The North on the other hand is in complete contrast to the South. The North industrialised very fast and many people of poor background and some African-American succeeded and made a lot of money. It isn't very clear that if they had lived in the South if they could have achieved this much success, but those in the North faced a lot less discrimination compared to the South. "Because the economics of the dynamic industrializing North and the static agrarian South were incompatible, the two societies were on a collision course that led inexorably to war" (http://civilwartalk.com/threads/historians-evolving-views-of-civil-war-causality.21223/) Many historians agree that this was not a major cause. According to economic historian Lee A. Craig, "In fact, numerous studies by economic historians over the past several decades reveal that economic conflict was not an inherent condition of North-South

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

One of the main differences of the economy were the railroads. The North had more railroads than the South because they used the railroads to transport medicines,soldiers,clothes,utilities,weapons, and foods during the war. In Document 1, the top map shows how the north had railroads going from different states and extending more. While, the South had a few railroads. In Document 2, the North’s railroad mileage was better since they did rely mostly on public transportation than the south did. Another difference was that the North was based on industrialization while the South was based on agriculture. In Document 1, the map on the bottom shows that the south’s main production was cotton. In Document 2, the graphs show that the North had 73% more population than the South who only had 27% of the population. The south had 88% more of slaves while the North had only had 12% of slaves. The North 1,300,000 industrial workers while the south only had 110.00 industrial workers. The North’s value of manufacturing goods yearly was over the south’s yearly value. The south instead relied on produce such as cotton while the north did not. Both used corn but the north produced it more than the south. These events caused the civil war to start because both had different economic

From 1820 to 1850, Sectionalism in America increased due to differences in regional economies, westward expansion, and growing abolitionism. These three clauses were the reasons there were two major sections in the United States back in this time period. There was the rich, wealthy, business owners and entrepreneurs and the poor, slave and labor workers. Sectionalism defined these two people groups. From 1820 to 1850 there were major differences in the Northern and Southern regions of America.

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.

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.