Compare And Contrast Nationalism And Sectionalism

The period in american history between the war of 1812 and the civil war saw growth in nationalism then in sectionalism. Nationalism shows pride in our county or nation, while sectionalism shows pride and loyalty to our region of the country.

The major difference between the north and the south was that the North had larger factories and relied on immigrants, while on the other hand the South had more farms and relied on slave labor. The north had lots of factories that were steam powered instead of water powered. The factories were located near railroads, they were very dirty and dangerous towards the workers. In the summer the factories where extremely hot and in the winners it was extremely cold, and there was very poor ventilation.

The workers were treated like machines they didn't get any breaks and had to work 12-14 hour shifts will little pay. Most of the workers were very poor, Families signed contracts so if one of the family members loses his/her job the whole family would lose their job. In the factories there was two groups the skilled and the unskilled workers, The skilled workers were very hard to replace so the employees had to listen to their demands or they would do on strike. The skilled workers had less hours and better pay. The unskilled workers were very easy to replace so the employees paid little to no attention to their demands. Most unskilled workers were from Germany and Ireland they came to america as immigrants because there potatoe farms were doing poorly and there was a famine.

While the north relied on factories the south relied on agriculture and slavery.

The south was known as the cotton kingdom because cotton was the major crop grown there. Cotton became a lot more populated after a man named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. The cotton gin was a machine that that separated the seeds and dirt from the fibers of the cotton. The significance of the cotton gin was that it allowed one person to do the work of 1,000 people. The cotton gin made slavery expand. In 1860 only one white southerner in 30 belonged to a planer family, and less than 1% of planters owned only one or two slaves. 75% where small farmers might own one or two slaves, most didn't own their land they rented it and lived in a small house. Poor whites were very low on the social ladder and had a hard life but were happy they were free. In 1860 over 200,000 free blacks lived in the south, they had special laws and weren't able to travel. Many free blacks were forced to move to the north. Slave life depended on the plantation, some slaves were treated very good and there owners made sure they had good warm food a warm place to sleep and nice clothes, while others were treated very poorly and there owners spent little to no time on

them.

In conclusion the major difference between the north and the south was that the north was more industrial and relied on immigrant labor, while the south was more relied on slave labor and farms. The south began to resent the north because they said the north treated him like kids. The difference between the two regions was that the south felt like the north was controlling them which caused anger. Those differences eventually lead to the Civil War.