The Worlds of North and South

Geography of the North Climate: –Four very distinct seasons with frozen winters to hot, humid summers. Natural features: –Coast: hundreds of bays and inlets used as harbors. (Shipbuilding, fishing) –New England: narrow, flat plain with thin covering of rocky soil. (NOT suited for farming) –Hills & valleys: covered with thick forests of spruce and fir. (Timber used for shipbuilding and trade) –Rivers: Hudson & Delaware Rivers made soil rich in the wide plains of NY, PA, & NJ. (Farming) –Appalachian Mountains –Central Plains: Forested region that was cleared to expose some of the richest farming land from OH to IL.

Economy of the North Inventors began to search for ways to make products more quickly and cheaply. This shift from hand manufacturing to machines is called the Industrial Revolution. In 1810, Francis Lowell built a textile mill in Massachusetts, which combined spinning and weaving machinery in the same building. The mill “took your bale of cotton in at one end and gave out yards of cloth at the other.” Lowell hired young women to work 12 to 15 hours each day with only Sundays off. “Lowell girls”

Economy of the North Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, which put skilled seamstresses who worked by hand out of work. Factory owners favored a strong national government that could promote improvements in manufacturing, trade, and transportation. By 1860, the value of manufacturing in the North was ten times greater than in the South.

Transportation in the North Factory owners needed fast, inexpensive ways to deliver their goods to distant customers. In 1806 Congress funded the construction of a National Road made of smooth gravel across the Appalachian Mountains to tie the new western states with the East coast. Robert Fulton’s invention of the steamboat in 1807 allowed for more efficient travel on rivers because they could travel upstream easily.

Transportation in the North By the 1820s, steamboats were used on all major rivers and across the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal was built to connect the Hudson River to Lake Erie and became the first all- water link between farms on the Central Plains and East Coast cities. Steam powered trains traveled faster than steamboats, which led to building over 20,000 miles of railroad to connect northern factories to cities hundreds of miles away.

Society of the North Most northerners were neither wealthy nor powerful. They believed that by hard work, ordinary people could acquire wealth and influence. By 1860, about 7 out of 10 northerners still lived on farms, but more people were moving to towns and cities. These cities lacked sewers and paved streets, and diseases spread quickly. African Americans living in the north were free, but they were not treated equally to whites. African Americans could not vote, hold office, serve on juries, or attend white churches or schools.

Geography of the South Climate: –Mild winters and long, hot, humid summers with plentiful rainfall. Natural features: –Coastal Plains: fertile lowlands stretched for more than 300 miles (farming) –Swamps & marshes: ideal for growing rice and sugarcane. –Plains: Suited for growing corn & tobacco –Rivers: Several rivers became the site of towns. Some ships could sail from the ocean up to the town to dock for business.

Economy of the South Based on agriculture (farming & raising livestock) Most white southerners worked their own small farms, but plantation owners used slaves to grow cash crops like tobacco, rice, and sugarcane. By 1790 the use of slaves was declining. Cotton was a promising crop, but it was hard to clean the seeds out. Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a machine that easily separated cotton fiber from its seeds. Across the south, planters began growing cotton.

Economy of the South By 1860 sales of cotton overseas earned more money than all other US exports combined. Because the soil lost nutrients due to repeated planting, cotton farmers began to move westward to Texas in search of fertile soil. Slavery increased as the demand and value of cotton increased. In 1831 a Virginia farmer Cyrus McCormick built a reaper that could cut 28 times more grain than a single man using a hand tool. By making it easier to harvest wheat, the Central Plains became known as the “bread basket.”

Transportation in the South Since most of the railroads were in the north, people and goods continued to move on rivers. The slow current and broad channels of southern rivers made water travel easy and cheap. On plantation docks, slaves would load cotton bales directly onto steam-powered boats. These boats would head to other ports or eventually down to cities near the ocean (New Orleans) to head for ports in England or the northern U.S.

Society of the South Southerners in 1860 still measure wealth in terms of land and slaves. The result was a social structure with a few rich plantation owners at the top, white farmers and workers in the middle, and African Americans—mostly slaves—at the bottom. As long as the slave economy could be preserved, the South had little incentive to make progress economically or culturally. The small amount of free African Americans living in the South were resented by whites, forced to wear special badges, pay extra taxes, and live separately from the whites.