The United States Is A Relatively Young Country When Compared

Along with the demand for cotton came a demand for labor. Black slaves from Africa were used to hand pick cotton in cotton fields, a tedious and daunting job. After Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin, cotton production skyrocketed from the average 3,000 bails per year to 300,000 bails per year. Unlike the north, the south lacked transportation improvements such as railways, roads, and water canals.

A sense of unity filled the United States of America after they gained independence by winning the Revolutionary War. This sense of unity, however, did not last forever. Rather than having disputes with Britain, the United States began to have disputes among its three "sections" - the north, south, and west. Starting with the War of 1812, sectionalism began as a small rift but grew into a huge gap that separated the north, south, and west.

Migration and population have played a massive role in defining the American lifestyle during the 18th and 19th centuries. One instance of this is through the different beliefs seen in contrasting ideals in the north and south. In the north, with much less of a reliance on agriculture, do not depend on the economic benefits of slavery as much as the south does. As a result, due to this, as well as the emergence of democratic philosophies, Americans, specifically those in northern colonies who didn’t rely on a cheap labor source, began to view such treatment as unequal and completely contradictory to the liberties granted in the Bill of RIghts. Additionally,

United States’s southern economy relied heavily on slavery. Southern slave owners begin to feel threatened as they saw

The United States began to dissatisfy some of its citizens and so the concerns of sectionalism, or the split of the country began to arise. There was a continuous riff between the south and the north over a few issues,

From 1776 to 1861 the weak but established government of the United States was trying to solve several issues politically between two distinct ideals within its new boarders. These issues would eventually separate the United States into two distinct regions. The two regions or sides are commonly known as the North and

The line between the North and South was deeply imbedded due to both moral and economic factors. Events in our country's history meant that this rift was eventually going to happen and war would ensue. The South always thought they were oppressed and looked down upon. They decided enough was enough when Lincoln became president and fought back. But, the economics of the two factions were far too vast to ever make a permanent compromise. Just like Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided.” which is what led to the war. The country divided because of the North success in the Industrial Revolution and the South’s refusal to join this revolution and relieve itself of its dependency on the economic

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

During this time period, the treatment of slaves improved because they were treated more like humans rather than farm animal. Some slave owners even allowed their slaves to purchase their freedom by working for them for a certain amount of time. Some African American slaves were not as lucky for their masters forbid them to do so (Doc F). As the North finally gets rid of all slave activity, the South becomes more and more dependent on slave labor and more embedded into the system.

One key difference between the North and South was the North’s abundance of cheap labor. Between 1845 and 1855 around 3 million people immigrated to the US (304). This new influx of people brought large quantities of low waged factory, mine and construction workers to the Northern states just in time to aid in the industrial revolution. Contrary to the North, southern states still relied heavily on slave labor as their economy was dependent on cash crops. Furthermore, slavery was not only an economic institution but now a way of life for Southerners. Therefore, slavery was more widely accepted and condoned as it was both a way of life and an economic institution. However, Northerners did not experience this way of life or rely on slave labor. Due to this, Northerners we more eager to expel slavery. Northerners’ discontentment with slavery created negative responses to the Compromise of 1850 as opposed to the Southerners. One of the five federal laws in the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, disabled Northerners’ to remain impartial to the slavery conflict (315). The Compromise strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, forcing Northerners to return

From 1830 to 1860 the United States, as a country, experienced change unlike any other before. This change was the territorial expansion of the United States, otherwise known as Manifest Destiny or “The Way West.” This expansion exponentially grew the size of this young country. When there is change, controversy is not far behind, uniting and dividing people. In the case of territorial expansion, this change was able to unite the United States. It was because of territorial expansion that the economy of the United States thrived. It was because of territorial expansion that the United States was viewed as a supper power, helping the countries National Security. It was also because of territorial expansion that more people were able to life the American dream of freedom and prosperity.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”1 These words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln, foreshadowed the war that became the bloodiest in all of the United State's history. The Civil War was a brutal conflict between the North and South; brother against brother. With slavery as the root cause, Southern states had seceded from the Union and were fighting for their independence. They became the Confederate States of America (CSA) and were a force to be reckoned with. The Union, however, put up a fierce struggle to preserve the country. If the Civil War was to be a war of attrition, the North had the upper hand because of its large population, industrialization, raw materials, railroad mileage, and navy. But if the war was short lived, the

In the late 1700s, the United States had began to split into two factions: Federalists and Antifederalists. Factions are groups of citizens united by a common interest. The reasoning behind the differing views of how the government works across the world was best said by Locke “Men are equal in a natural sense, but society establishes many dimensions that are unequal”. (Barbour and Wright, 2017). In the states, Federalists wanted a strong central government while anti-federalists wanted a weak one. “The Georgians, for example, wanted a strong central authority to provide military protection for their huge, underpopulated state against the Creek Confederacy; Jerseymen and Connecticuters wanted to escape from economic bondage to New York; the Virginians hoped to establish a system which would give that great state its rightful place in the councils of the republic” (Roche, 800). The one thing they agreed on was having George Washington as president. George Washington tried to be a neutral leader of the United States and suggested for the states to stay together rather than divide into factions. “Thomas Jefferson is credited as stating: “North and South will hang together if they have you to hang on””(Jamison, 2016).

Until the 12th of April, 1861, the United States had never seen a war as big as the Civil War. The country, that, during the Revolutionary War, was small and united; now, was deeply divided by a (somewhat) imaginary line. This separated the Union into two independent countries: the Confederate States of America, also called the South or Confederacy, was pro slavery; and the United States of America, also called the North or Union, was against slavery. This division was long awaited. As someone who was against slavery on moral grounds, the election of Abraham Lincoln caused the secession of the following slave states in the Deep South: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. After the Battle of Fort Sumter,

As we already noted – in the 1800s expediency of slavery was disputed. While industrial North almost abandoned bondage, by the early 19th century, slavery was almost exclusively confined to the South, home to more than 90 percent of American blacks (Barney W., p. 61). Agrarian South needed free labor force in order to stimulate economic growth. In particular, whites exploited blacks in textile production. This conditioned the differences in economic and social development of the North and South, and opposing viewpoints on the social structure. “Northerners now saw slavery as a barbaric relic from the past, a barrier to secular and Christian progress that contradicted the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and degraded the free-labor aspirations of Northern society” (Barney W., p. 63).