Civil War: Differences Between The North And The United States

The North’s economy was based on textiles, shipping, and skilled trades. Their climate was not suited for the same type of agricultural products that the South produced like cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco. Northern states like New England manufactured and shipped goods like guns, clocks, plows and axes (page 399). One reason for the South’s dependence on slavery is because their economy relied on the existence of slave labor. For example, the cultivation of cotton depended largely on slave labor, with 75% of the crop grown on plantations,

In the early to mid 19th century, the country was at a major divide. Slavery was still allowed federally, but many northern states had decided to outlaw it in their own region. With new states coming into the union, each side hoped to gain control of the government and attempt to push their agenda. The civil war was a direct result of a north-south political and cultural divide exemplified with arguments abouts which states could be allowed into the union with slavery.

According to the map, the North is doing much better in terms of manufacturing during the year of 1860. For example, when added up, the manufacturing value of the South is equal to $292.5 million, which is still less than the manufacturing value of New York - $378.9 million (Document 8A). The North had a higher manufacturing value in general compared to the South. During the 1850s and 1860s, the North was producing more textiles, leather goods, and firearms (Arrington). In comparison, the South was best known for its agriculture. Crops grew well there due to the fertile soil and warm climate (“North and South”). In Document 8B, there is a chart that shows the economic growth of the United States exports - starting in 1850 and ending in 1860; this chart compares the United State’s total exports compared to their cotton

The South invented the cotton gin which produced cotton a lot faster. One cotton gin equalled the same as seven slaves. According to source 6 “ This tool had completely changed the face of the south's agriculture and wealth. The south provide two thirds of the world cotton. Making the south very rich but also increasing slave numbers and the number of cotton farms.” Meanwhile, the north did not have suitable rock soil for establishing farmers. The north's economy came to be known for its trading and its factories. Source 9 states “ Industries and factories centered in the north. Many factories using mass production methods had sprung up there, and cities grew rapidly.” The North then started to build intricate railroad systems and shipping industries to transport the manufactured goods. As you can see the north and the south had huge technology differences which also caused a lot of tension between the states as

According to document 1a, which is a map showing the value of manufacturing in 1860 of the free states, slaves states, and territories. The South depended on the North and foreign imports for manufactured goods. The North had a better economy than the South, with about twice as many factories

In the mid-1800s, North and South of the United States started a war with each other known as the Civil War. It all began with the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12th 1861. It was the bloodiest and saddest war in American history. The tension between the North and the South started to grow rapidly because their unity was replaced by sectionalism. The South slowly started to secede from the Union because of numerous reasons such as slavery and Abraham Lincoln.

America before the Civil War was the North and the South being completely divided. The South did one thing and the North did another. The North specialized in factories while the South specialized in slavery. The North and The South would debate over certain things and most of the time couldn’t come to an agreement. The South seceded from the Union because of slavery, sectionalism and differences between the South and the North.

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

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.

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.

The Civil War was a time of fighting within the United States brought on by many events including the Missouri Compromise, abolition movement, presidential election of 1860, secession of Southern states, and other occurrences. Most Southern states seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. The big divide stemmed from the differing positions on slavery. The North had been gradually abolishing slavery and did not depend on such free labor in the way the South did. The agricultural dependant economy of the South relied on African American labor. Therefore, each side feared the stance the government would take on the issue of slavery and how that would affect the economy and politics of the nation. From 1861 to 1865, the

With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable. This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. However, at the same time the increase in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton meant the greater need for a large amount of cheap labor, i.e. slaves. Thus, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery. On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture. In fact, the northern industries were purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This disparity between the two set up a

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.

Slavery, in the South and as well in the North, played a huge role of the culture of their societies. The North had a general belief in abolitionism, while the South opposed that idea. All the economic reasons led to the cultural differences. The South viewed slavery as a necessity to their economy. The North believed it was wrong to own a human being. The South contradicted this idea with the North’s use of cheap labor in its factories.

The American Civil War took place from 1861-1865 was an inevitable event in the American history. More than 640,000 people were killed and millions more were injured during this massive war. The civil war was between the northern and the southern states where its most leading cause was slavery. Along with that, economic, political and social ideologies caused the civil war. The northern states, also known as the union, were more successful and antislavery compare to the southern confederates states. The northern states were more populated, had more industries, and believed in the Declaration of Independence statement that “all men are