1. Period 4: 1800-1848 | Amsco Chapter 9 Overview
Sectionalism
Period 4: | Amsco Chapter 9 Overview

2. Regionalism
In 1826, the USA celebrated its 50th birthday, its strength was in its flexibility for expansion
However, distinct regions and interests were emerging: North, South, and West
The North (the Northeast and the Northwest – which extended west from Ohio to Minnesota)
These were bound by transportation networks and economic activity
Had the most industry but mostly still agricultural as well as the largest population and immigration
Organized labor would form: by 1842 “peaceful unions” could negotiate working conditions, which could be horrid
Improvement for workers would continue to be limited by
Periodic depressions
Employers and courts that were hostile to unions
An abundance of cheap, migrant labor
Northern urban population grew from 5% in 1800 to 15% by 1850: slums became an integral part of northern industry
Crowded housing, sanitation issues, diseases, and hate crimes grew
Ethnic hate crimes: 250,000 Africans living in the North = 1% of northern population in 1860 BUT were stigmatized
The Agricultural Northwest (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota)
Originally unsettled frontier, this region would be closely tied by:
Federal campaigns to remove natives and the building of canals and railroads to connect expanding markets
Agriculture drove settlement: John Deere’s steel plow and Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper
Innovation drove success: distilleries emerged to brew beer/whiskey with surplus crop

3. Immigration
Immigration drove settlement: 1830s-1850s c. 4 million immigrants came for a new life
They would arrive on the east coast and head west, inland (plantations of the south limited opportunity)
They arrived because of issues in Europe (famine, expensive land, war)
America’s growing reputation of “land of opportunity”: Northern infrastructure spread west to assist migrations
Half of these migrants would be Irish (potato famine – would be discriminated against for Catholicism)
Democratic Revolutions of 1848 in Europe failed to bring democracy (many Germans left)
These migrants, quiet at first, would staunchly oppose slavery and support public education
Nativism (nativists: native-born Americans)
There was a growing trend of anti-immigration: fear of job loss and diluting “Anglo-Americanism” (WASP)
Irish and German Catholics were discriminated against and riots ensued in many cities
Nativism would simmer during the Civil War, only to rise again during periods of immigration
The South (agriculture and King Cotton)
Agriculture as foundation of economic/social life: cash crops, plantations and slave labor
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin: affordable cotton clothing and growing importance of Southern cotton industry
2/3 of all US exports and GB as primary consumer

4. Slavery, the “Peculiar Institution”
Despite its questionable nature, colonial slave holders justified it as an economic necessity
The cotton boom was responsible for a fourfold increase in slaves: 1800 – 1 million; 1860 – 4 million
Britain banned the slave trade in 1807, which led to slaves being smuggled into America and increased “breeding”
In parts of the Deep South, slaves were 75% of the population: laws intensified lack of escape and education
Slavery was integral to the Southern economy as it lacked capital to industrialize
Slave conditions varied with each plantation, but none received human rights
Some were beaten, others were treated humanely; families were often split; women were sexually abused
Slave revolts would be violently put down, followed by harsher laws (Nat Turner 1831)
Free blacks in the South were discriminated against and their liberties were restricted
White southern society had a rigid hierarchy with aristocratic planters living comfortably at top
Aristocracy: white elite that owned at least 100 slaves and at least 1,000 acres
Dominated the state legislatures: legislation would favor the aristocratic economic interests
Farmers: the majority of slaveholders (fewer than 20 slaves) holding around several hundred acres
Produced the bulk of the cotton crop, lived modestly like northern farmers
Poor whites: 3/4s of the South’s white population with no slaves, lived in the hills as subsistence farmers
Called “poor white trash” by elite, they would defend slave system in hopes of obtaining a slave
Mountain people: a minority living in isolation in the South (Appalachian)
Disliked planters and their slaves, many would support the North during the Civil War

5. Day 2
Chapter 9

6. Southern Thought
Cities were limited (only 1 [New Orleans] in the South was top 15 [population] in the US)
Economic dependency on slavery and cotton penetrated all Southern thought
Great Britain and France outlawed slave trade and later slavery; the North grew hostile to it
The South began to feel culturally, economically, intellectually, and politically isolated
Code of “Chivalry”
The aristocratic hierarchy of the South led to a feudal sentiment
Southern “gentlemen” ascribed to a chivalric code of self-righteousness over the “inferior”
Education was limited to the elite: as leaders of society, they cherished university learning
The poor classes did not have access to education above elementary; it was illegal to educate slaves
Methodist and Baptist churches and the “slave question”
Both cited Biblical support for slavery and their membership in the South grew rapidly: splitting with Northern branches in the 1840s
Branches of Christianity that challenged slavery or took a moderate view of it declined in popularity

7. The West The definition changed constantly as the “West” shrank
The original inhabitants of the “West” (all of the lands west of the Atlantic coast) were driven west
As white settlers encroached on these lands they would cheat, kill, and justify their movement
By 1850, the “West” referred to land west of the Mississippi
All of the original inhabitants had been killed by disease, war, or forced to leave by military action or treaty
The Great Plains as the last stand for Native Americans and their home (horses brought by Spain assisted them)
While many tribes continued to settle and farm the land, others picked up nomadic hunting (buffalo)
This allowed them greater mobility to avoid white encroachment (temporary respite)
The physical frontier would constantly shift but the concept of the frontier remained a driving goal of movement
This concept remained a constant “fresh start” for something new, a “promised land”
This applied to Americans, Europeans, and Asians who would all seek a new life in the “West”
Mountain men of the West
Followed/explored the native paths made through the wilderness, sometimes permanently residing there
White settlers on the Western Frontier
It was not easy, settlers had to work to survive (disease and malnutrition killed most)
Natives did attack (continuation of white encroachment)
The role of women in homestead maintenance grew in importance (as the men worked, and living in isolation)
With little ecological understanding, man settlers cleared forests and farmed, leading to soil depletion
More than environmental destruction, hunters drove beavers and buffalo to near extinction (US military and buffalos)