in the Southern colonies. These different mixtures of people and their ways of life would lead to
hidden controversies in the years to come.
As a result of their opposing values, the political structures of the Northern and Southern
colonies developed differently. The Southern colonists were very self-seeking. They had no
common ideology to keep them together, so their society was often fragmented. The higher on
the social scale they were, the more power they had in political affairs. For example, in North
Carolina and South Carolina, the very poor were excluded from political life altogether. On the
other hand, in the Northern colonies, all men were viewed as equal. For example, William Penn
argued that no government could be stable unless it reflects all of society. Both the rich and the
poor had to have a voice in political affairs. Neither group of people were able to overrule the
interests of the other class. Religious toleration was also granted to some Northern colonies.
For example, in New York, the Duke’s Laws guaranteed religious freedom and created local
governments. The Northern colonies seemed to grant the settlers more freedom on important
political issues than in the Southern colonies. This would eventually also lead to some
disturbing conflicts.
Differences between the two regions did not diminish after the colonial period.
Throughout the powerful times of nation-building following the Revolution, tensions continued
to increase between the Northern and Southern states. From 1783 to 1848, Northern and
Southern states continued to develop in different social, economical, and political ways.
The biggest social concern and contradiction to a republican society during this period
was the issue of slavery. Many white Americans held a double standard by demanding liberty
while owning several slaves themselves. In the Northern states, there was no real economic
advantage for slavery. This led to the creation of antislavery societies. By 1792, antislavery
societies were meeting from Virginia to Maryland. Some slaveholders were ashamed of
themselves for the first time. In several states north of Virginia, slavery was abolished in
different ways. Slaves were liberated through legislation in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and
Massachusetts. By 1800, slavery was nearly extinct in most of the Northern states but still
strong, and growing after a slump, in the Southern states.
Another social concern was still the difference in cultures between the two regions. With
the vast expansion of land during the period 1783 to 1848, came a wide range of cultures.
Northerners moving to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois took their churches, schools, community pride,
Puritan beliefs of hard work, and respect for the law and government along with them.
Southerners were more devoted to defense of personal honor and independence. They had less
respect for the law and government. Many tasks such as planting, harvesting, plowing, keeping
house, and spinning cotton had to be done in the newly acquired territories. Frontier planters
had slaves to get this work done for them, while others shared the work with the community.
As for the economy, situations in the North and South continued to vastly differ. Wheat
was the main cash crop of the North. Tobacco continued to be a major cash crop of the upper
South. However, in the lower South, cotton was now on the rise. Cotton eventually became the
leading crop for the South, along with other staple crops such as rice and sugar. The Deep South
became the world’s greatest producer of cotton as a result of an increase of textile mills in New
England, the availability of good land, and the invention of the cotton gin. The cotton gin was a
major reason for the increase in slave labor. Invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, this device cut the
costs of producing cotton, shortened production, and allowed it to be much more marketable.
More slaves were needed as a result.
Tariffs also became an economic problem for the cotton-growing South. Tariffs were
always unpopular in the South. As a staple-producing and exporting region, the South had valid
reason for resenting some of the protective tariffs passed. Southern free traders were extremely
angered after Jackson passed the tariff of 1828. A while after it was passed, South Carolina
declared the new duties unconstitutional and argued for the right of an individual state to nullify
federal law. Jackson asked Congress to let him use his army to enforce the tariff. Congress
eventually enacted the Force Bill. This nullification crisis revealed that South Carolina would
not tolerate any federal action that they considered to be negative to their interest or to the
institution of slavery. The South was not afraid to take a stand against the government.
Some of the political compromises made in the period 1783-1848 also led to tensions
between the North and the South. These rules and compromises were part of the Constitution.
One was the three-fifths rule. Southern states demanded that slaves be included in
representation in the lower house of Congress, so Northern states were angered. Disputes
developed. Eventually, it was determined, that for representation, slaves would be counted but
not as much as free individuals. Every five slaves would equal three free voters. This gave the
South more power than it would have originally received. Northerners disliked this rule. It
seemed to grant slaveholders more power in government. They also detested the slave trade and
hoped to end it. However, it was decided that Congress would not interfere with the slave trade
until 1808. The Fugitive Slave Act was also passed, calling for the return of runaway slaves.
Northerners were disgusted.
Time went by, and 1808 was coming right around the corner. Congress had to consider
whether or not to ban the importation of slaves into the United States. In 1806, Jefferson urged
representatives to pass legislation outlawing the slave trade. Northern representatives favored
this bill. Southerners opposed it. Since people in the South did not view slavery as evil, it would
not make sense for them to obey these laws. In 1807, Jefferson passed a bill prohibiting the
importation of slaves into the United States after the new year, but the Southern states refused to
cooperate.
The most serious political crisis in the early to mid 1800’s was the heated controversy
between the North and the South over the admission of Missouri to the Union. Since Missouri
already possessed two to three thousand slaves, it would come into the Union as a slave state
unless Congress took action. Northerners resented the three-fifths clause because it gave
Southerners more representation in the House and the electoral college. Southerners feared a
balance of power between the two sections. Until this time, an equal number of slave and free
states had been added to the Union, but now there was a problem. In compromise, Missouri
would enter as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Slavery was prohibited above the latitude
of 36 30’. The crisis was resolved for the time, but it had a huge impact on the underlying
differences and tensions for future North/ South relations. If the United States had to determine
the slave status of any new territories, sectional tensions would surely come into play. The issue
of slavery seemed to be dominant over everything.
The differences that developed between 1783 and 1848 had lasting effects on the
relationship between the North and the South. However, no solutions to these differences
seemed to be forming, and tensions continued to grow deeper and deeper. From 1848 to 1861,
tensions rose so high that the nation was ultimately divided.
Many profound social changes and reform movements occurred in the period 1820 to
1850. Religion once again began to play an important role in life. The Second Great
Awakening began in the early 1800’s. This was a period of mass religious revivalism. It began
on the southern frontier. Highly emotional camp meeting organized by Methodists, Baptists, and
Presbyterians became a common feature used to meet the social and religious needs of
southerners. Although some of these meeting aimed to improve morals, they tried not to lean
toward social reform. Since the South was a slave-holding society, the people there did not
encourage radical efforts to change the world. In contrast, reform movements in the North were
more evident. Northern evangelists were mostly Congregationalists and Presbyterians. They
relied heavily on Puritan traditions. Their revivals were generally less emotional than those of
the South. Many missionary and benevolent societies were formed in the North. The biggest
and most important social reform movement in the North was the temperance crusade. Another
reform movement was in education. There was much progress made in education in the North,
but none in the South. In 1837, local schools were established throughout the free states, and a
state board of education was established. The South put more emphasis on family rather than
school. It was illegal for blacks to learn to read and write.
Another major social difference was the life of a planter compared to that of a laborer.
The North experienced a vast decline in the artisan system of work. By the 1840’s, the portion
of men engaged in factory work dramatically increased. Home and work became two separate
places, and men and women had “separate spheres.” Working conditions in many of the mills
became extremely poor. Twelve to fourteen hour workdays were expected. Bosses cut wages,
increased the speed of machinery, and gave each worker more responsibility. Immigrants were
willing to work for less and did not protest these poor working conditions. Expansion and
immigration created a class of men and women who were destined to this horrible low paying
labor for life. The great planters in the South had a strikingly different lifestyle than the laborers
in the North. The great planters were elite and held most of the political and economic power in
the South. They were aristocrats who held cavalier values. They lived by ideas of chivalry.
Honor was more important than wealth, unlike in the North. Dueling was still used in the South
but illegal in the North. Planters spent large amounts of money just to impress their neighbors.
In reality, only 1% of the southern population belonged to this elite group. Most were yeomen
farmers who owned their own land, were independent, proud, and respectable. They had
ambitions to rise to the planter class. Four million people in the South were still slaves who
lived under intolerable conditions. Some slaves were whipped by their masters, ripped apart
from their families, and denied any political freedom. If they wanted to attend church meetings,
they had to do so secretly.
The continuation of developing different economies also spurred dangerous relations
between the North and the South. The North took on many advances in transportation, industry,
and agriculture. The railroad and telegraph were two important innovations. The telegraph
made it possible to communicate rapidly over the entire nation. The railroad changed northern
economy more than anything. Railroads enhanced the development of the iron industry. This
was the first experience of a truly big business in America and a prototype of massive
corporations. Railroads also led to the development of the new types of securities or “preferred
stock.” Also, factory production in the North was greatly extended. Some things produced were
firearms, clocks, and sewing machines. Mass production with the use of interchangeable parts
was more frequently used. New technology such as the sewing machine, vulcanization of
rubber, and machine tools made industrialization more efficient. The steel plow and mechanical
reaper were important developments in agriculture.
The economy of the South was still different than that of the North. The South felt
threatened that the North was changing so much; they were more or less rested in their ways.
Forced labor had always been considered essential to the South’s plantation economy and still
continued to be so. Plantation agriculture was expanding, and so did the dependence on slave
labor. The South’s economy became a three tier system. In the upper South, tobacco continued
to be the main slave-holding crop. However, tobacco was becoming less and less prominent and
new crops were being experimented with. These new crops reduced the demand for labor. For
this reason, slaves were “sold down the river” to the Deep South. The warm climate and rich
soil in the Deep South made it possible to raise important crops like rice, long-staple cotton, and
sugar. However, it was the rise of short-staple cotton that strengthened the grip on slavery. By
the 1850’s, three-quarters of the world’s supply of cotton came form the American South.
“King Cotton” was a phrase used to describe the success of this crop. It made many southerners
feel very powerful. They were the ones who produced the raw material that was fueling
industries in the North. They were well aware that it was a strength, not a weakness. This crop
was the Old South’s best chance for profit. So from an economic standpoint, the South had
every right to support and defend slavery.
The political problems that arose during the period right before the Civil War heightened
tensions more than ever. The first had to do with the annexation of Texas. President Tyler
strove for the annexation of Texas. This would cure the South’s hunger for additional slave
states. Success or failure of the annexation would test the amount of control that the North had
over the South. The annexation treaty was first rejected, but it later passed with the
administration of Polk. As President, Polk also demanded all of Oregon. For many Northerners,
gaining these territories was the only thing that made the annexation of Texas acceptable. They
hoped for more free states. However, in reality only half the territory was able to be acquired.
Northerners were furious. They were promised half. Polk had cheated them. They began to
view Polk as a President who only cared about the South.
Another political question was that of what to do with the territory gained from the
Mexican War. Northerners began to feel that the real purpose of the war was to spread the
institution of slavery and increase political power of the southern states. As an attempt to solve
this problem, the Wilmot Proviso was proposed in 1846. This would prohibit slavery in any new
territory from Mexico. Northerners supported this, and
Southerners rejected it. It never did get enough votes to pass. A while later, the Compromise of
1850 did pass. Under this compromise, California would be admitted as a free state, and New
Mexico would be granted popular sovereignty. This was a win for the North. For the South,
stronger fugitive slave laws were enacted throughout the North. This brought the issue of
slavery home to the North. Now the blacks in the North were in danger. They argued that
personal liberty laws would overrule the slave laws, and tensions grew. The Compromise only
served as a temporary basis for sectional peace.
Another political problem was the collapse of the second-party system of Democrats
versus Whigs. All along, Democrats had favored expansion and a fair division between slave
and free states, while Whigs had opposed annexations. By 1852, there was disenchantment with
the major parties. By 1854, the system had collapsed, and the Whigs were disappearing. The
Republican party that stood on the platform of “Free Soil” was formed.
To further political tensions, in 1854, Stephen Douglas proposed a bill to organize the
territory west of Missouri and Iowa. This area fell where slavery was banned by the Missouri
Compromise. He fought for the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act applied popular
sovereignty to voters in Kansas and Nebraska and went against the Missouri Compromise. The
South supported this, but the North rejected it. This push eventually led to “Bleeding Kansas”
which was a preview of the Civil War.
The final political blow before the Civil War was the election of 1860. In this election,
there were four candidates. Lincoln won the election. He was the leading candidate in the
North, yet he received no support from the South. This severely frightened the South. This was
the first time in a presidential election that the North voted all together and completely overruled
the South. As a result, in 1860, secession began as South Carolina broke apart from the Union.
All in all, what started out as a strive for independence and a common goal, led to one of
the bloodiest battles of all time. Perhaps there is no one reason to justify the Civil War. Though,
surely, there were many social, economical, and political differences between the two regions
that underlie the cause. These differences led intense disputes with no permanent solutions.
Eventually, there was a house divided, and as Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself
cannot stand.” Sure enough, not many Americans were left standing after this intense battle that
killed 620,000 people.