USI.35

 media type="custom" key="29548183" align="right" =Describe how did the different economies and cultures of the North and South contributed to the growing importance of sectional politics in the early 19th century=



** Topics on the Page **

 * Two Distinct Economies and Cultures **
 * Industry in the North **
 * Agriculture in the South **
 * A Divided Country **
 * Outlooks Leading to War **
 * ** Noam Chomsky on the Legacy of Slavery **
 * Sectional Politics **
 * Women's Roles and Perspectives **
 * Teaching Resources **

Two Distinct Economies and Cultures
1) Two distinct economic cultures had arisen within the United States in the years before the Civil War, economic cultures that were similar to what caused the split of the American colonists from the British Empire in 1776. This led to distinct views of southern and northern nationalism.
 * In the North, the people wished to preserve the Union at all costs.
 * While in the South, the concept of a new Southern republic was backed by the people.
 * Yet the economic systems of the North and the South were actually quite complimentary. The agricultural production of the South was needed to support the rise of industrialization in the North and each system was dependent upon the other. Still the large majority of the free citizens of the United States lived in the North while slave labor dominated the South.
 * Years of political patchwork and compromise only delayed the coming of the Civil War in 1861.

**See also AP United States History Topic 6**

**The Plantation Letters: Integrating Antebellum Plantation Life** presents themes associated with traditionally underrepresented persons on antebellum plantations, namely slaves, women, and children.

"Although there were serious differences between the sections, all of them except slavery could have been settled through the democratic process. Slavery poisoned the whole situation. It was the issue that could not be compromised, the issue that made men so angry they did not want to compromise. It put a cutting edge on all arguments. It was not the only cause of the Civil War, but it was unquestionably the one cause without which the war would not have taken place" (//The Civil War//, Bruce Catton, Houghton Mifflin, 1960).

Click here for a timeline of events leading up to the Civil war.

S[|lavery Crash Course] [|Pre-Civil War Crash Course] Click here for a comprehensive history of Northern industrialization and the Antebellum South from the OpenStax College free US History E-Textbook.

Read this article to learn more about the North and South's reliance on each other and their seemingly opposing economic systems.

Read this overview of the differences between the North and South's economies and political makeups.

Industry in the North
2) Industry in the North was on the rise.
 * It was importing raw materials from the South and from other countries and turning them into material products to be used by Americans and exported to nations across the globe.

Agriculture in the South
3) The South was based on an agricultural economy and, therefore, supported slavery.
 * Large-scale plantations were utilized to create an environment of maximum output, which in turn would lead to maximum profit.
 * The Democratic party of the South was committed to maintaining this lifestyle and was the major opposition to the Democrats of the North.
 * The rise of the abolitionist movement in the North stood in marked contrast with the "necessity" of slave labor in the South.
 * There were ideological and economic reasons to end slavery; while the morality of slavery was challenged for a long time, it was not a major push in the early days of the abolitionist movement.

Watch this video to find out more about cotton's central role in shaping the Southern economy and the rest of the US.

Click here for more on the South's agricultural economy and its reliance on slave labor from Digital History.

A Divided Country
4) The different economies in the North and South led to the creation of a divided American culture.
 * The North, based on industry and cities, and the South, based on the agrarian lifestyle, came into conflict with one another due to this difference.
 * Different cultures and economies would lend themselves to distinct political needs, which would manifest in competing political parties.
 * The North would largely support the Republican party, while the South would almost unanimously support the Democratic party: each with their own distinct views on the direction of law and policy in America.
 * These parties were not the same as they are today- the Republican party was closer to the modern Democratic party and vice versa.
 * [|History of the Political Parties (Part 1)]
 * [|History of the Political Parties (Part 2)]

See these cultural divisions through the use of political cartoons.

Outlooks Leading to War
5) It should also be noted here that the economies and structures of both regions contributed to certain political outlooks that led to the Civil War.
 * The North, which had industrialized, was much more connected and centralized and therefore supported the federal, over the state, government.
 * The South, which was less centralized, was more divided up into the individual states of which it was comprised.
 * They, therefore, advocated for states' rights over those of the federal government.
 * In the end, these basic economic and cultural differences would erupt into the American Civil War.

Analyze these primary sources to gain better understanding of these political divisions and then test your knowledge by answering the review questions.


 * Noam Chomsky on the Legacy of Slavery**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Y3u_cGfxM

This video interview by Noam Chomsky explains the enduring legacy of slavery from the early years of the US through till the Civil War and into the present day. In many ways Chomsky asks us to consider if we have ever stopped fighting the Civil War. This is particularly pertinent given recent movements to dismantle Confederate statues/monuments that has been sweeping the South.

The Erie Canal and the swiftly growing system of railroads are key examples of how the North was steadily industrializing at a faster pace than the agrarian South.



Sectional Politics
6) The rise of sectional politics would directly cause some of the major events leading up to the Civil War in 1861, including the Missouri Compromise, the Wilmot Proviso and the Lincoln-Douglas debates.


 * For more on the factors that led to the Civil War, see @USI.36**

Click here for an interactive map of the Missouri Compromise.

Watch this video for more on the cultural, economic, and political divisions between the North and South during the Antebellum Period from Khan Academy.

Here is a [|timeline] of the events leading to the Civil War.

To receive a better understanding of the divisions in the United States, please check out **Abraham Lincoln's House Divided Speech**
 * On the other hand, many prominent Southerners believed slavery actually helped further society. Check out this excerpt from South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond chronicling his "Mudsill Theory"
 *  Here is a link to the text of a speech given by John Bingham of Ohio in the House of Representatives, on April 24, 1860. He discussed the issue of sectional politics and the speech provides an interesting look at his mindset.
 * Here is a speech given in the House of Representatives on August 6, 1856, by Russel Sage. It is titled, "On the Professions and Acts of the President of the United States; the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise; the Outrages in Kansas; and the Sectional Influence and Aggression of the Slave Power."

Here is a link to a book written by Cicero W. Harris in 1902, //The Sectional Struggle//. Harris' book looks at various events beginning with the Compromise of 1833 and continues up to the Civil War. //The Sectional Struggle// offers some insight into the conflict between the North and the South throughout an extended period of time.

[[image:Female_Rose.png]]Women's Roles and Perspectives

 * Click here to read an excerpt from Fanny Kemble's Journal called //Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation.//
 * //See also [|Fanny Kemble and Pierce Butler from PBS.] She was an abolitionist; he was a slaveholder//
 * The book, "The Sea Captain's Wife" serves as a great source of Northern perspectives of the period through the lens of a woman who was a sister of union soldiers and a wife of a confederate soldier.
 * There is a wealth of documentation in letters for women during this period through an online exhibition called "A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln", hosted by Digital History.

This account of the African nanny-white child relationship outlined here further complicates the issues of humanity and human bondage in the Antebellum South.

Teaching Resources
Click here for lesson plans and classroom resources on the "Growing Crisis of Sectionalism in Antebellum America" from EDSitement.
 * Here is a link to a site from Teaching With Historic Places that contains several lesson plans dealing with a variety of aspects of the Civil War.
 * This is a site from Fitchburg State University that has a lot of Civil War related lesson plan ideas.
 * Here is a link to [|lesson plans] for Teachers and Students about the events leading to the Civil War.
 * Here is a [|link] to a lesson plan on African-American communities in the North prior to the Civil War.


 * To take a closer look at the Antebellum South, watch this lecture from Yale Open Course
 * Also, make sure to look at its complimentary lecture focusing on the Yankee North here
 * Finally, check out this overview lecture on the causes of the Civil War

Here is a link to the text of **"1861"**, by Walt Whitman. This is the poem that Professor Blight reads at the end of the "overview lecture."

Photograph of Whitman is by Matthew Brady between 1860 and 1865

For an outline of these main issues see Sectionalism and National Growth [1] http://home.earthlink.net/~gfeldmeth/lec.sect.html

In-depth Look at Sectional Conflict [2] http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/chap6.htm

Essay on the Social Changes of the Jackson Era [3] http://jmisc.net/Jksn-era.htm

Works Cited: [1] Feldmeth, G (1998). Sectionalism and National Growth. Retrieved April 18, 2007, from U.S. History Resources Web site: http://home.earthlink.net/~gfeldmeth/lec.sect.html [2] (2006). Chapter Six: Sectional Conflict. Retrieved April 18, 2007, from From Revolution to Reconstruction Web site: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/chap6.htm [3] (2007). Social Changes in Jackson Era U.S.A.. Retrieved April 18, 2007, Web site: http://jmisc.net/Jksn-era.htm [4] (2007). Manifest Destiny: An Empire for Liberty or Slavery. Retrieved April 18, 2007, Web site: http://ppl.nhmccd.edu/~craigl/13.html [5] Lincoln, A. (1858). A House Divided. Retrieved on April 3, 2010. Web Site: @http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2934t.html [6]Hammond, J (1858) The Mudsill Theory. Retrieved on April 3, 2010. Web Site: @http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3439t.html [7] Kemble, F (1863) //Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation.//Retrieved on April 3, 2010. Web Site: @http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2922t.html [8] (1998) Hayward and the Slave Louisa. Retrieved on April 3, 2010. Web Site: @http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3140.html [9] Blight, D. (2008) Southern Society: Slavery, King Cotton, and Antebellum America's "Peculiar" Region. Retrieved on April 3, 2010. Web Site: @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PunB5vPj2sE&feature=related [10] Blight, D.(2008) A Northern World View: Yankee Society, Antislavery Ideology and the Abolition Movement. Retrieved on April 3, 2010. Web Site:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd1rB51xCzk&feature=PlayList&p=5DD220D6A1282057&playnext_from=PL [11] Blight, D.(2008) Slavery and State's Rights, Economies and Ways of Life: What Caused the Civil War Retrieved on April 3, 2010. Web Site: @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GscBDjPNBjM&feature=PlayList&p=5DD220D6A1282057&playnext_from=PL [12] < http://ushistoryimages.com/steam-locomotive.shtm >. [13] < http://ushistoryimages.com/erie-canal.shtm >.