2) North v South Flashcards
(34 cards)
1
Q
what was the typiacl northerner?
A
- a self-sufficient farmer, owning 50-500 acres of land
- bar existence of slavery, was no more egalitarian than S
- minority of wealthy men wielded infl over political & social life
2
Q
how did the northern urbanised population/ agricultural change over time?
A
- % of urbanised pop (living in towns):
1820- 10%
1840- 14%
1860- 26% - % of labour force in agriculture:
1800- 68%
1860- 20% - moving toward a vibrant competitive meritocracy
3
Q
how did religion help shape Northern society?
A
- new Yankee Protestantism emerges
- rise of reform movements eg womens rights, temperance, education, anti-slavery
- ^so the SECOND GREAT AWAKENING- series of protestant revivals dring 1820s + 1830s
- strove for conversion of individual sinners
- wanted to cleanse society of sins of drunkenness, ingnorance, prostitution, slavery
- infl strongly by Puritans and Quakers
4
Q
how did the north see the South?
A
- as backwards, a threat/ ‘foe’ to democracy
- N more responsive to new ideas, see industrialisation as progress
5
Q
how many immigrants settled in the N 1820-1860?
A
- 90% of the 5 million settled in N
- 1/6 of Ns in 1860 were foreign born
6
Q
how did the north fair in education?
A
- higher literacy rates & more schooling developed far more extensively
- a better informed, politically active population
- early educ in order to read thre Bible
7
Q
how did the Northern postal system effect it socially?
A
- more efficient postal system based n pre-paid mail
- developed far mroe extensivley than S
- better informed pop
- this also meant a rise in cheap NPs and periodicals and religious press
8
Q
what percentages of the South were urbanised/ labour force in agriculture in the South over time?
A
- % of urbanised pop:
1820- 5%
1840- 6%
1860- 10% - % of lab force in ag:
1800- 82%
1860- 81% - dif in upper/ lower though- as w all this- can’t be sweeping
9
Q
who was in position of infl in S?
A
- Planters
- less than 5% of white pop
- owned best farmland & maj of wealth & slaves
- thought to have led Southern politics & set tone of social life
10
Q
how much immigration was in S?
A
- not much at all
- 1860, 1/30 Ss = foreign born
- s pop more homogeneous than n- tight kinship networks, high rate of cousin marriages
11
Q
how did Southerners view the North?
A
- saw them as radicals, and a threat to old agrarian trad values & the stability & soc control they provided
- alarmed & frightened by Northern acceptance of change; saw them as hell-bent on destroying slavery institution & the southern way of life
- ferocity in the S mind to new eng- idea that persuit of manufacturing & mechanical arts had degraded the race
12
Q
how was the South more violent than North?
A
- more concerned abt personal honour- sensitive to personal insult- duelling & violence
- homicide rate higher in S- duelling & Ss more likely to carry weapons
- S had more military companies & volunteers
13
Q
where were black ppl living more?
A
- 95% of US’s black pop lived in South- 1/3 of ppl there were black
14
Q
to what extent did the Southern economy grow in 19th century?
A
- grew, but did not develop an industrial & commercial sector as teh N did
- by 1850, produced 10% of the country’s manufactured output, despite accounting for 35% of the population.
- but cotton gre- by mid 19th cent, S cotton made up over 1/2 of US’s total exports
- kept agricultural w no desire to trade- some refused to trade w North
15
Q
what was atypiacl Southerner in around 1820?
A
- like in North, a self-sufficient farmer
– 2/3 of Southerners in 1820 did not own slaves
16
Q
what industries dominated in the South?
A
- relied upon large-scale cultivation of crops like tobacco and cotton - as labour intensive in 1800s as in 1500s- relied on slave labour
- by mid 19th cent, S cotton sales accounted for over 1/2 of US’s exports
17
Q
how different were the populations of south vs north pre-civil war?
A
- on the eve of civil war, pop of N was 50% greater than S’s
18
Q
how much heavier did the North industrialise?
A
- developed more industries- relied on mixed farming and free labour
- more urban- by 1850, only 6 of US’s largest 30 cities were in South
- but a process still- by 1820, fewer than 1 in 10 Americans lived in a town (a settlement of over 2,500 ppl)
19
Q
how was the American economy different to European countries’?
A
(mostly in North, but in South too):
- more CAPITAL INTENSIVE than LABOUR INTENSIVE
- SHORTAGE OF LABOUR: esp skilled, lab constantly fell below demand due to cheap land in the west & rapid groth of the ec; so wage levels higher than Eu
- PLENTIFUL SUPPLY OF RESOURCES & RAW MAT: eg water (powered textile mills of New England) & wood (fuelle dsteam engines)
- HIGH LEVELS OF EDUC & LIT RATE
- OPPENNES TO CHANGE & EXPERIMENTATION
20
Q
what was the dominant political foce in North by 1860?
A
- free labour ideology
21
Q
how did faster printing methods in the North affect politics?
A
- no of A NPs, most of which tied to local political parties- these increased- 1,200 in 1835–> 2,526 in 1850
- better informed & politically active pop
22
Q
what pol policies did the South support?
A
- didn’t spport tariffs- argued they benefitted Northern industrialists at the expense of Southern farmers
23
Q
how did the South feel politically/ economically exploited by the North?
A
- depended on Northern credit to finance growing cotton, sugar, tobacco & rice industries
- so relied upon:
- North to market these goods
- N ships to transport them
- SO much of the profits from ‘King Cotton’ ended up w Northern business men
24
Q
what is Southern Exceptionalism?
A
- the idea that the South ha possessed a separate and unique identity outside of the mainstream American experience
25
what types of labour dominated each side?
- struggle between free labour in N and slave labour in S
- S thought free lbour was filthy and not worthy of S gentlemen
- N thought sl demonstrated a lack of intelligence, enterrprise and improvement
26
how did law become an instrument of division rather than unification?
- N passed personal liberty laws in resposne to natioonal FSA
- a S dominated supreme court denied congress to exclude sl from the territories- most Ns considered this a distortion of the const
27
how did language/ culture become an instrument of division rather than unification?
- S- viability of Afro-American culture under slavery- black music, folklore, speech patterns, religious practises- S society's emphasis on oral tradition & non-literate forms of communication and ritual- reinforced persistance of traditional, folk-orientated culture in S
- S saw N society as impersonal, industrialising, commercial, rootless, mobile
28
how did out-migration rates differ?
- in mid 19th cent:
- 2x as many whites left the S for the N as vice versa
- N said it was due to the popularity & superiority of N free-lab system
- S alarmed by it- evidence of their growing minority status in the nation
- led to sectional self-consciousness that would eventually lead to succesion- low lit rates etc add to this
29
how were the north and south similar economically?
- complex ec systems, income mainly from agricultuure & specific crops
- primarily worked in low-skilled jobs, small shops and households over factories
- disparities in wealth- richest 1% had 27% of wealth
- wealth more equal in countryside than cities & towns, which were similiiar in n and s w inequality
30
how were the north and south socially similar?
- similiarsocial structure- small groups of rich men on top, middle was mainly hard-working farmers, bottom was landless agricultural labouers, with black ppl even lower
31
how did the differences in education & literacy effect Americans?
- N used lowlit rates as framing to criticise slavery
- many Ss acctually admitted inferiority and tried to change- had school reforms, but they didn'u work so well
- n also better in other forms of education- 1860, per capita newspaper circulation 3x greater than in S, and number of library volumes per person 2x greater
32
why did immigrants stay in north?
- worked in industrie sin N, which had wage labour- used to being employed w weekly wages, diverse population
- no work for them in the south- it was done by slaves
33
what political movement did the north generally support?
- HIGH TARIFFS- made n produced goods more expensive than thos eimported from foreign countries- supports industry
- NATIONAL BANK
- in general tho not that dif views from s towards the start, at least that they could articculate; p parties still infancy
34
what is another way at looking at the differences between north and south?
- debate over whether the two were fundemenatlly dif civilisations or whether a common history & language united them against great britain in war
- even if differences/ views pf eachotehr exaggerated, didn't matter- if people belived there were differnces, they acted as though there were- each viewed the other w strong suspicion
