Was there really a separate North and South?

In McPherson’s “Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism” essay, it is noted that the argument is focused on the fact that although the South was seen as different and exceptional, it was actually the North who had been changing. The South was only keeping the same values and traditions it had been following for years (McPherson 41). One instance where the North’s change is noted is when McPherson demonstrates the percentage of agricultural work in the North and South; "In 1800, 82 percent of the Southern labor force worked in agriculture compared with 68 percent in the free states. By 1860 the Northern share had dropped to 40 percent while the Southern proportion had actually increased slightly, to 84

The Reconstruction Era and The Jim Crow Era were both times of Rapid growth in the United States that were characterized by changes not only on the intrapersonal level, but also on the cultural and legislative level. The Reconstruction Era occurred directly after the civil war and spanned twelve years from 1865 to 1877 , while the Jim Crow Era occurred from 1877 to 1954. Some of the common themes of these eras were race relations and tension between northern states and southern states. The first topic that this paper will be covering is race relations during these two eras. Race relations were a central theme in the two films The Birth of a Nation and Within Our Gates making it a natural fit. The other topic that will be covered in this paper is the role and responsibilities of northern states during the reconstruction era. In this paper, Northern states will be defined as any state who supported the union during the American Civil War.

In short, the South was a polar opposite of the North. They were engrained with a greedy, stubborn and selfish

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).

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 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.

From the formation of the United States, the North and South grew substantially different with distinct ideology. The South was an agrarian-based society that Jefferson wanted. The Southerners grew cotton, tobacco and potatoes, which needed intense labor. To fulfill the needed workforce with low price, one-third of the population of the South was comprised of the African-American slaves. In contrast, the North was greatly influenced by the Industrial Revolution and formed a manufacturing society based on Hamilton’s plans. Northern cities, the center of industry in the United States, did not require a slave

Slavery was a disgraceful part of our history for many years. Its start grew from a need for a labor source in the new and growing America. The Southern economy thrived from slave labor whereas the North did not rely on the labor of slaves. This paper will prove that slavery failed in the North because in the North there was no need for large labor to support the economic structure compared to the South where slavery was needed to support their economy. There are three main points that will be used to support this. They are; Northern industry and Southern industry were very different, the slave population was smaller in the North because of the different economy in the North, and the smaller slave population and less

Opposites can usually attract but in this case they repel each other. After the constitution was adopted by all of the states in 1789, the north and south had been growing. The south depend on slavery and the north were free states By 1861 there were differences between the north and the south that no compromise could bring the two together. And so a conflict started in our nation called the Civil War. Southern states seceded from the Union because of social and economic differences, political arguments, and slavery

The two authors of these historical writing’s, Hinton Helper and Thomas R. Dew share similar interests about the economy in the southern states, however, they differ in opinion and desire. Take Thomas R. Dews’ stance on the economical well being of the south,” …slave labor, in an economical point of view, is far superior to free negro labor” (491). Dew is essentially making a case for the southern economy and he challenges anyone who questions the status quo that exists in the southern states during this time period. Dew is obviously in favor of continuing the slave labor market with a reliance on the demand for goods in the northern states. Hinton Helper on the other hand also makes a case for the well being of the southern economy and does so by outlining a plan to create a fixed point along the southern coast “…at some point or port on the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia or Virginia” (492). Hinton, unlike Dew wants to gradually see the southern economy move away from a heavy dependence from the northern markets and expand outward trying to establish trade with foreign markets “… open facilities for direct communication with foreign countries” (492). Both writers bring passion to their arguments and a sense of southern pride. The two writers’ by virtue of expression ultimately expose two distinct weaknesses of the

The South’s agriculture was predominantly dependent on slave labor prior to the Civil War. Although the North continued to industrialize and improve its technology to advance their farming, the South stuck to their tradition of using slaves, which proved to be inefficient. By 1860, the productivity of the North was almost double of that of the South, and the reason is revealed in this article. When he was traveling short distances, he found the slaves to be completely inefficient. Only few slaves on a farm were capable of working for their masters, others were often too young, too old, or too ill to work. The white men didn’t like work because of their belief that work was meant for slaves, and the slaves that worked never gave their best effort, for they were lacking

This paper reflects on three books that help explore the Northern and Southern regions of the United States of America during the Civil War. It will also include political, social and economical development for each region. This will show how people during this time had to deal with hardships and dealing with the war. It will also show how it affects them on their day to day basis because of the war and having to deal with the social, political, and economical developments in their region and how each one is different than the other because of the different parts they are in. Each region will be different because of where they are located. The weather and nature of each region has to be put into consideration when looking at these three (political, social and economical development) because they all are affected differently from where they are located.

During the antebellum period, the North and South were often seen as separate nations. The North and South were not two distinct nations technically; however, both North and South are characterized by different words. Since different factors described the nation, individuals began to see the North and South as separate. The North was classified as industrialized and the South was associated with farming such as cotton production. The assumption that the North and South had very little in common is a true statement.

The United States of America is a large country with vast and diverse landscape ranging from mountains and glaciers in the north to subtropical forests and coasts in the south. However, in spite of the geographical variance, the major differences between the northern and southern America rooted in its complex historical context. The earliest official recognition of the northern and southern states as regional entities was in 1796, when George Washington used the terms “North” in referring to the states that fought as the Union states and “South” for those as Confederate states during the American Civil War (). However, differences between the North and the South were readily apparent well before the American Revolution. In 1861, the Civil War erupted between the two sides, and much of the conflict led to some sectional differences.

Historians have often described the reconciliation between northerners and southerners after the Civil War as a process of selective forgetting. The shared Union and Confederate experience of courage-under-fire quickly supplanted the root causes of the war and the longstanding sectional acrimony between North and South in the public memory. As Michael Kammen suggested in his 1991 book Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture historical meaning is imbued with concern for the present. For many Americans, North and South in the late nineteenth-century, “present” concerns were economic progress and stability. Sectional discord and enmity stood in the way of rebuilding the nation, and prosperity required letting bygones-be-bygones. New narratives sutured from selected historical memories were crafted to expedite the national healing process and to appeal to the sentiments of northerners who romanticized the bucolic Old South and its aristocratic order. Although nostalgia for a pre-industrial past played its part in fostering reunion, Reiko Hillyer, in Designing Dixie: Tourism, Memory, and Urban Space, argues that it was the mutual economic interests of northern capitalists and southern boosters that were central to reconciliation, and shaping the development of the New South.