The Worlds of the North and South Ms. Quealy Gr. 8 Social Studies

Geography of the North Northern states experience very distinct seasons – winter, spring, summer, fall The farther north the longer the winters and the shorter the summers

Geography of the North Most of the North was bordered by the Appalachian Mountains Most of New England was rocky, mountainous, forested, and full of rivers Picture: Crawford Notch, White Mountains, New Hampshire

Geography of the North Coastal New England was rocky with many harbors that were good for shipping and used the many forests for timber and building Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York had wide rivers and fertile plains good for shipping and farming Picture: Long Sands Beach, Wells, Maine

Geography of the North Past the Appalachian Mountains, the Northwest had the Great Lakes, some of the most fertile plains in the United States, and the northern reaches of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers

Geography of the South Most Southern States had short, mild winters and long, hot summers There was plenty of rainfall and long growing seasons Also, the mountains were much lower and further away from the coast

Geography of the South Most of the South from Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico had, wide coastal plains that allowed for farming Many swamps, and tidal lowlands provided areas for growing rice and sugar cane Picture: The Carolina Coastal Plain, Willmington, North Carolina

Geography of the South Many areas of the South had wide, flat rivers Most of the land was flat and allowed people to continue farming further inland Farms grew tobacco, cotton, indigo The rivers were used like large highways to transport goods Picture: The James River Basin, Virginia

Geography of the South There were also abundant natural resources in the South including lumber from forests and crabs, oysters and fish from the Chesapeake Bay

Society in the North In the 1840s and 1850s about 4 millions immigrants arrived in the North Immigrants from Ireland escaping the potato famine took jobs in factories Immigrants from Germany were usually skilled workers and had enough money to move to the Northwest and buy farmland and work in new towns

Society in the North Despite the growth of industry, seven out of ten Northerners still lived on farms Children were expected to work on farms, and could go to school only when they were not needed on farms

Society in the North Northerners were beginning to move into the cities that surrounded mill towns and railroad lines (urbanization) Unfortunately, cities were often dirty, lacked sewers, could be overcrowded and disease spread quickly

Society in the North African Americans in the North were free, but they did not have equal rights Most African Americans could not vote, own property, serve on juries, or attend white schools or churches As a result, most African Americans worked as servants or laborers to make a living

Society in the North Mill towns sprung up anywhere there were large concentrations of factories Lowell, Massachusetts was the first real, planned factory town; it included boarding houses for workers, stores for workers to shop in, town offices, newspaper printers, and the mills themselves

Society in the North As the number of factories in the North increased, the quality of life for workers decreased Soon workers were forming unions to secure better working conditions, shorter work hours and better pay

Society in the North What does this graph indicate about slavery in the Northern States?

Society in the South Society in the South had a definite structure that was determined by wealth and race The upper class of society was made up of rich, white, plantation owners; middle classes were made up of poorer white farmers and laborers; “free blacks” had very little status; the lowest rank of people in Southern society were slaves

Society in the South Most of the political power in the South was held by rich, white, plantation owners Most plantations were modeled on Europeans estates and had grand gardens, and large mansions Plantations owners valued a leisurely way of life that included parties and social visits

Society in the South Most white Southerners owned some land, but only a small percentage owned slaves These Southerners worked their own farms with their families, and perhaps one slave Some poor, white farmers owned no land and rented what was often the worst land and barely made enough to survive

Society in the South The majority of African Americans in the South were slaves They had no rights, no property, and usually no say in who they married, where they worked, or whether or not their families would stay together

Society in the South There were several major cities in the South including Charleston, South Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana These port cities were home to merchants, laborers, and the small free black population Most southern cities did a great deal of business in shipping raw materials to factories in the North

Society in the South What does the graph indicate about the slave populations of the Southern States?

Economy – Railroads What does the image indicate about the amount of railroads in the North? In the South?

Economy – Industrial Production What does this image indicate about industrial production in the United States before 1860? Where are the most productive and wealthiest areas of the United States?

Economy – Agricultural Production Based on this image, what are the chief agricultural products of the North? Of the South?

Economy of the North Shipping: Clipper Ships were some of the fastest ships on the ocean, and enable Northern traders to reach all parts of the world

Economy of the North Water Transportation: The first steam boat was built in 1807 Soon, these boats enabled people and goods to travel up-river By the 1820s, steamboats were located on most major rivers and the Great Lakes

Economy of the North Railroads: The first railroad cars were pulled by horses In 1829, the steam-powered locomotive was invented, and it soon began to pull railroad cars at much faster speeds than ever before

Economy of the North Railroads: Although at first quite dangerous, builders overcame most safety hazards and were laying thousands of miles of track by the mid-1800s Railroads became the North’s biggest industry with Chicago and New York becoming the biggest railroad hubs in the US

Economy of the North Factories: Factories originally harnessed water power to run their machines Mills, and mill towns, sprung up in the North surrounding major waterways New England became famous for its textile industry

Economy of the North Factories: Soon, steam power replaced water power Factories could now be built anywhere, and the machines within the factories could also run on steam New machines enable goods to be produced even faster Railroads brought cheap goods to all corners of the country; some small farmers could not compete and left their farms to work in factories

Economy of the North Canals: Steamboats made water transportation easier, but rivers were not everywhere Canals were man-made waterways that usually connected ares that could not easily be reached, or bypassed waterfalls or other natural obstacles The Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson River enabling western farmers to very quickly ship their goods to the east

Economy of the South “King Cotton” The Industrial Revolution in the North increased the demand for Southern Cotton Southern planters could not keep up with demand until Eli Whitney’s cotton gin enabled the cotton cleaning process to go much faster In 1792, cotton planters produced about 6,000 bales of cotton, by 1850, cotton planters were growing over 2 million bales of cotton per year

Economy of the South “King Cotton” Cotton plantations spread all over the South This increased the demand for slaves to work on cotton plantations The area of the South that grew cotton became known as the “Cotton Kingdom”

Economy of the South The Slave Trade: King Cotton caused a vicious cycle in the South Cotton needed to be picked by hand As the demand for cotton increased, the demand for slaves to pick cotton increased Plantation owners would use their cotton profits to purchase more slaves to pick more cotton

Economy of the South Agriculture: Cotton was king, but not the South’s only crop Rice grew along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia; Sugar Cane was an important crop for Louisiana and Texas – both crops were plantation crops like cotton and only rich Southerners with land and slaves planted these crops Tobacco was still planted in Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, but farms were much smaller than they had been during colonial times

Economy of the South Shipping: Steam ships were the major way in which crops were brought to market in the South Steamboats were found on most of the major waterways of the South bringing raw materials to the major port cities in the South New Orleans, with its prime location at the mouth of the Mississippi River was the largest city in the South

Economy of the South Water Transportation: Because water transportation was the way in which most people and goods travelled in the South, most towns formed along the rivers There were very few roads or canals to connect other areas of the South, and most Southerners disapproved of funding other means of transportation (especially since they felt it would help the North more)

Economy of the South Railroads: Railroads were not as prevalent in the South as the North Most lines that did exist helped bring Southern goods to Northern markets The Tredegar Iron Works in Virginia was the South’s only iron factory, and most Southern rails came from that factory