When Lincoln was elected in the fall of 1860 many southerners saw this as the beginning-of-the-end. Mr. Lincoln had gone on record as saying he would not eliminate slavery where it stood but he would attempt to block it from spreading. The South wasn't buying this at all. They interpreted this as he may not try to eliminate slavery now but eventually he would. Of course...they were right. So with his victory eleven states would eventually secede and create the Confederate States of America.
You have studied extensively about different pieces of legislation and other events that divided our country in the years leading up to the Civil War. For this blog, lets consider exactly how the North and South were different. The Civil War was also made possible because both regions were basically two separate countries already. They had different demographics, economic systems, major political parties etc. Please visit this website to begin to get a feel for how the regions were different. After you've read the main page, be sure to read AT LEAST three of the links under the heading "History Articles" on the right hand side of the page to deepen your knowledge of the conflict. In the comments section highlight what you've learned and be sure to touch on what made the North and South so different.
Reading this article helped me understand what happened or what caused the Civil War. Here are some differences between the North and the South. The North- They had more industries and factories. They had many larger cities than the South like New York. Slavery had died out in the North and not in the South. Transportation was also easier and better in the North. Northerners were also were in the Whig/Republican party. Kids were more educated, and also attended school more often than the kids in the South. The South- The South had good soil and a warmer climate. They had big farms that they would grow cotton and tobacco on because of the right soil and climate in the south. About 80 percent of the people worked on a farm. The south had more slaves than in the North. There were about 4 million African Americans and 5.5 million whites. There were no large cities except for New Orleans. Transportation was really difficult besides traveling by water. Southerners were in the Democratic party. So basically the North had better stuff than in the South. I learned more about what other things triggered the Civil War to start besides the Missouri compromise, Dred Scott Case, and Bleeding- Kansas. I also learned that there were about 22 million people from the North and about 9 million people from the South that fought in the Civil War. Slaves also did not only work on plantations, they also worked as cleaning the streets, bricklayers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, laborers and so much more. (260)
ReplyDeleteThe Civil War had many casualties, but not all of them were caused by the fighting. Most of the deaths were caused by disease. The Civil War had more casualties up until the Vietnam War. The world wars made the statement of the Civil War having the most casualties of all the American wars put together false. The north had some documents of the deaths so we know of about how many people died in the Civil War, but we don’t know much about the South because they didn’t keep very many documents. The issue of slavery was almost taken away when the first constitution was made because the document outlawed slavery, but since the vote needed all 13 states to agree on the document it didn’t pass. The Missouri Compromise came out and the states began to argue even more about the issue of slavery. The Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the debates between Douglas and Lincoln caused made the south think that all these things were only helping the North and not the south. The only act that supported them was the Fugitive Slave Laws of 1850. The South argued about states’ rights and that they had the right to deny these acts. They felt that the North would take away the slaves so they decided to secede. At the beginning of the United States the problem was that the people were having too hard of a time building the houses and everything. The solution was to bring over some Africans to help the finish their work and become slaves. Slavery was beginning to die out as tobacco was dying out, but the invention of the cotton gin made slavery even more profitable. The end of the Civil war ended Slavery and outlawed the practice of it too. The difference between the North and the South were very many. The North favored more factories, and the South favored more farms and plants. The North had more of everything, with the exception of slaves and plantations. The North even had more immigrants than the south did. Overall the North seemed to be a better place. (357)
ReplyDeleteThe time right before the Civil War was a tense time. A good analogy for this situation is a present at a special occasion, but with two very different things inside it (like a cat and dog). It was just so with the United States and the Confederates. The North had lots of smaller farmsteads unlike the South's enormous plantations. The North was geared towards a more industrial economy due to its more plentiful resources than its southern counterpart. This led to larger cities and a need for more workers meaning a bigger population. Transportation was far easier in the North than the South because 2/3 of the nations railways were up there. Most people in the North belonged to the Whigs/Republicans and the South was mostly Democratic. The South was more urban than the North which led to a stall in their economy while the North was experiencing an economic boom. Kids in the North were also more likely to attend school than kids in the South. Several major events like the Kansas-Nebraska Act, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, Abraham Lincoln's Election, and The first battlefield of the Civil War: Fort Sumter, were just some of the trigger events for the Civil War. The casualties in the civil war were more than all of our wars combined. Until recently, I thought a casualty meant a person died or went missing, but now I know that any soldier who couldn't preform his duties physically or mentally were considered a casualty. State's rights were also an issue at the time, the South saying that slavery was a "necessary evil" then that slavery was a "positive good". This led to the whole discussion of whenever a state was chosen to be allowing slave or being free. Things got no bad it led to violence in the Senate and even abolitionist attacks in Harper's Ferry. This was all leading up to one of the most terrible times in America's history.(328)
ReplyDeleteThe North and South were different in many ways. The population was different, 71% of the people lived in the North while only 29% lived in the South. Between 1800 and 1860 many immigrants moved to America and 7 out of every eight lived in the North rather than the South. The North was more industrial and had most of the factories while the South thrived on farms and slavery. There were no large cities beside New Orleans in the South and all of the cities were located near a river or coast. Also children in the North were more likely to attend schools compared to children in the South. The people in the North were usually Republicans unlike the people in the South, who were mainly Democrats. An Act that helped divide the nation even more was the Compromise of 1850. (146)
ReplyDeleteDuring the civil war the North was the obvious victor because of many reasons. The North had 71 percent of the population. The South only had 29 percent of the American population at the time. The South had one advantage though; they had large farms. Which gave them a lot of food and crops and most of all, cotton. The North had just about everything else taken though. They had stuff like;railroads, population, and factories. In the article about slavery in America i learned that cotton was like tobacco in the South because it was a major cash crop. I also learned that the goal for the Union was not to end slavery but it was to preserve the Union. The articles on this website were really interesting.(128)
ReplyDeleteThe Civil War was the most important war in America's history. Before we had really learned what the war was all about I always thought that to abolish slavery was the only reason they were fighting. I learned that it wasn't just slavery, but also uprisings like Nat Turner's and John Brown's. Also the Missouri Compromise and The Compromise of 1850 had a huge role in starting the war. From just looking at the bar graphs, it looks pretty obvious that the North would win, but from reading, the South put up a good fight, but eventually had to surrender. The North had it all-the population, the money, the factories. I looked at a graph that showed the Civil War service population and if ALL the people that were eligible in the North fought, then they would have about 4 times more soldiers than the South! I'm kind of wondering why the South even tried, but they were fighting for something different: independence, while the North was fighting to keep the Union together. The one thing the South had more of than the North was farmland. I thought it was interesting that the soldiers died more from disease than just fighting. These articles helped me "dig deeper" in learning about the Civil War-why it started, the events during the war, and the effects it had on the country when it was over. (232)
ReplyDeleteThe North and the South were very different, and this made their opinions on slavery very different. The North had a larger population, more wealth, more factories, and more production. Children from the North were more likely to go to school, and industry flourish here. In the South there were very many farms and plantations as opposed to factories. Slavery was a big part of their culture, and there was almost as many African Americans in the South as there were whites. The North and South had two completely different ways of life. When I think about the Civil War I just think about slavery, but there were many events that caused the war. The Missouri Compromise, "Bleeding Kansas", and secession happened because of differing views on slavery, and were just a few things inside the larger topic of slavery leading up to the Civil War. States' rights was a big issue where some of the southern states seceded and formed The Confederate States of America. The effects of the Civil War were horrible, and around 620,000 people died. At an estimate there were 1.5 million causalities reported in the war. More people died from disease than from fighting in battles, which I thought was pretty interesting. 1 out of 4 soldiers that joined fighting in the war never came back home, and 1 in 13 people who returned home were missing at least one limb. The Civil War is the largest human catastrophe in America's history, and no set of completely accurate numbers will ever be known. (258)
ReplyDeleteThe North and the South had big differences. The North was basically the industrial part of America. It had the factories but hardly had any farms due to its soil and climate. The South did have the farms. Their main crop they planted that gave them the money was cotton. Even though these two have many differences they both serve a big part in helping America in total. The war had now started, there was nothing to delay it now. The Rebels had many disadvantages and advantages. The Yankees had more supplies, but the Confederates new the territory better(just like when the British came to fight America). Many "Great" battles were fought, and lots of people died. The President soon ordered people the age of 18 to 35 had serve in the war for at least three years. After the war the South faced more difficulty then they new how to deal with. Hunger and the destroyed farmlands caused the economy to fall, unlike the North who had other things to fall on. For example paper money. The war had many hardships that happened, but it was all worth it in the end, because slavery has been abolished.(201)
ReplyDeleteThe North and South were completely opposites. The north had more transportation,industry, and more education than the south. Whereas the south had more agriculture, and more slavery even though ⅔ of the population in the south didn’t own slaves. They also had less education and most men went to have military careers and agriculture. The north on the other hand had a lot more education and people were far more likely to progress a business, medicine, or engineer career in the north. Even though they had all these differences they had one issue that they couldn’t agree with and that was states’ rights. Branching off of that is the issue of slavery and if it should be allowed or not. What I found interesting was that after the Revolutionary War slavery started dying down but after Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793 the south needed more slaves again to manage all the cotton.They then became more offensive on the issue of slavery and in 1820 the Missouri Compromise was passed. I think that if the north and south thought of themselves as separate from each other they especially did now, because now there was even an actual line separating them.There was also the serious discussion of secession around 1846-1850 when the Wilmot Proviso was introduced. If this was accepted then slavery would be banned from all the new territory acquired from Mexico. Of course that wasn’t passed but South Carolina did ended up seceding on December 6,1856 a month after Lincoln was elected. In the end of this all the Union won and restored the union, but it also outlawed slavery on December 6,1865 when the 13th amendment was passed.(287)
ReplyDeleteThere was no comparison in popularity between the north and the south. 7 out of ever 8 new people in the USA went to the north! The north obviously had the population advantage, but the south had more crops to feed their soldiers. Plus, most of the battles were fought in the south. In the chart on the website, the north wins every category except farm land. The north had the clear advantage from the very beginning. Each side also had their own motives. The north was trying to restore unity. Though the south was trying to prove their independence. The north is like England, and the south is like the first 13 colonies. (115)
ReplyDeleteThe Northern and Southern states were very different in the mid-1800s. The North was wealthy. Its economy system was pretty much solely based on factories, which jump-started at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The North was also the section of the country that received the best education and was known to be the “classiest.” Also, the North was known for being Republicans and Whigs. They also had a larger population than the South did. Though a few Northerners owned slaves, it was nothing like the South’s situation. Slaves were the Justin Bieber of the Southern economy. Southerners were just not willing to give up their jobs (and pretty much their lives), to sacrifice for people in the North, that they didn’t even like that much. The South was willing to fight and go against all odds to keep what they had worked for, whether it meant happiness or war. And in their case, I have a feeling they wanted both. (161)
ReplyDeleteThe North and South were both one country but very different places. One way they were different was that one political party was more popular in one region while another one was popular in the other. In the north, the popular party was Republican/Whig while in the south it was the Democratic Party. Another huge difference in the regions was their economics. In the North they made their money off the cloths and things they made in factories (they were very industrial) while in the South they made a huge amount of money off the North and other places by selling the massive amounts of cotton they farmed. This meant the plantation owners needed some help, so they bought slaves which lived awful lives. This was a primary reason the Civil War started. They cruelty of how the slaves were treated made the northern people got furious. Even people, like John Brown, would attack on southern bases expecting slaves to revolt but the slaves were not showing. Later, the spark lit the fire. The spark was Abraham Lincoln. He said he was trying to stop the spread of slavery but the southerners knew that wasn’t the plan. Finally, North Carolina seceded the union, followed by other states, and soon there was fighting. The North and South’s powerful diversities were so great, a war happened!
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DeleteThere were any differences between the north and south in the mid-1800. One large one was slavery. Many people in the north were against slavery called themselves abolitionists. Most southerners, even though many didn’t own slaves, believed slavery was a God given right. One thing the north did during the civil war that I thought was good is letting them in the U.S. Army. It was a good way to make up using them as slaves. The abolitionist outbreaks were things that really helped the north. When a slave owner is dead the slaves should be set free. Oh wait, thanks to the stupid judge in the Dred Scott case slaves can never be free or have any rights! It would have been easier living in the North because of getting an education and a job other than hard physical labor.(141)
ReplyDeleteThose links really helped me understand the Civil War even more. I never knew there were so many differences between the North and the South. The North had all of the factories, railroads, and resources. The South, however, had the soil and climate for cash crops and obviously had all of the slaves. One thing I learned was that only 1/3 of the Southerners actually owned slaves. Typically, people assume that EVERYONE owned slaves if they lived in the South but less than half actually did. The numbers in the “Cost of the War” link were crazy. I never knew that so many people died in the Civil War. More died from disease than the actual fighting which I found insane. I also found it sad that the families had to go search for their relatives themselves after the Battle of Gettysburg took place. After reading the “States’ Rights” link I learned of the many reasons the Civil War took place. Kinda like “the love of money is the root of all evil” I still think that “slavery was the root of the Civil War.” Just my opinion though. I’m glad that slavery was abolished, but it’s sad that so many lives were lost and affected in the process. {209}
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I really enjoyed learning from these articles and the website. As we see, there are tons of differences between the North and the South. To me, it seems like the north was more "advanced", in a way. They had over half more percentage of people, railroad mileage, iron steel production, wealth, value of exports, and factories. The ONLY thing the South had more of was large farms because of where they were. The South had fertile soil and a warm climate that was perfect for growing crops. This meant that's they had to workers to help tend to the fields. Their whole government and way of life was centered around their farming because all the money came from it, so OF COURSE they were dependent on the slaves. (I think this is why during the Reconstruction Era it was so difficult for the South because 1. no slaves and 2. land was ruined) The North's way of life and governing was based mostly on industries. And a lot of their workers were from Europe so they weren't dependent on slaves and didn't have to worry about their land because the Civil War was for the most part on Southern soil. The majority of the children in the North went to school while the majority in the South didn't. Without education, America wouldn't have prospered like it has. And with the train tracks, it opened lots of different opportunities for the North as did the wealth. Obviously, the North and South were much different, but I'm grateful the Union won, with the help of Lincoln, Lee, and others, or else America would be a much different and worse state, in my opinion. (281)
ReplyDeleteThese articles were very enjoyable and helped me understand the whole Civil War conflicts and battles. The North and South were two very different parts of the country. The North gained most of the country’s wealth and was much more advanced in the modern technology. They had many factories but in order to operate those factories, they needed the cotton from the South. The North still had the better education and most importantly, they had no slaves. That was the main difference between the North and the South. Even though these sides of the country were quite different, I think that after the Civil war was over and slavery was abolished it brought our country closer together considering over the past 50 years that was the main conflict. It may have almost destroyed the entire South’s land and ruined their main trade system, slavery was better off abolished. It was better abolished and if the Civil War was the way to do, so be it. (165)
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun one Mr. H. I mostly learned some details that kind of surprised me. To start with I thoughEVERYONE in the south owned slaves, but turns out that one a third did which I thought was opposite. Also, I saw that the north had way more railways than the south which was different because the south did a lot of shipping so I would have thought railways would have been a major part of the south. During this time, I also thought it was interesting to see the way that the north got its economic boom during the war while it was the opposite before. It seems as though an outside force was trying to tell us that the first will be last and the last will be first.... Anyway, this was a tragic event that cost our country precious time, resources, and people. I hope that we will never have to relive the horrors of the civil war. (152)
ReplyDeleteThe North and South had gradually become two separate nations throughout the 19th century, years before the Civil War began. The North had more people, more railroads and was basically an industrial dynasty, while the South was largely agricultural and depended on slave labor for its economy to survive. The political views were also very different. Northerners made up the majority of the Whig/Republican party while Southern men were Democrats. Their national policies were also very different. I learned in the article, "States' Rights", that although they tried to work out their differences through the Missouri Compromise, Debates between political leaders and the Compromise of 1850, in the end war was inevitable. The South felt that that the only piece of legislation that favored them was the Fugitive Slave law of 1850 and eventually there would not be equal representation in Congress for them. I was surprised in reading these articles how many factors actually led to the Civil War. It wasn't just about slavery but how the South felt that the North was slowly trying to destroy the South's economy by preventing new states to join the Union as slave states. In the article, "Trigger Events of the Civil War", I learned that the fear of rebellions such as Nat Turner's Rebellion and John Brown's Raid caused many non-slave owners to defend slavery as necessary. While 2/3 of the South's population did not own slaves preachers all over the south helped continue this fear of Northern control and the end of the Southern way of life by using scriptures based on Noah's Curse of Ham and stories in the Old Testament about Abraham, Jacob and Job owning slaves as examples of how God approved of slavery. Southern churches condemned the North as going against God and the Bible and began to think that they could purify themselves by secession. Although the Northern families were more educated and many men had careers in business, law and as doctors as opposed to the South's population where agriculture was their primary way of life and fewer children attended school and worked on farms while the more prominent plantation owners chose careers in agriculture or the military, I feel the North had the greater advantages because of the overwhelming volume of factories and manufacturers and railroad transportation. By viewing the bar graphs you can see that the North had more money and with the industries and so many people living in urban areas they were able to manufacture and export more valuable goods. No matter which side was right, Civil War was inevitable because of the obvious major differences in their population, economic systems and political views. It took many years for the two regions of the United States to divide and many lives were lost, homes and families were destroyed and entire cities and economies had to be rebuilt as well as mended relationships over several generations but hopefully our country can learn from this tragedy, however inevitable, that the United States should never let itself be divided again.(507)
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