The Industrial North and Agricultural South

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The old myth was that the North and South regions of the United States were colonized by two separate groups of migrants. Although this myth is false, one can understand why the northerners and southerners thought they were colonized by distinct groups. No two regions in United States history were more different than the North and the South, which enhances the idea that the Civil War was a long time coming. Although their different lifestyles, in and of themselves, differentiated the North and South, their respective lifestyles also caused their respective economies to flourish in completely different ways. The South was an agriculture-based society that “flourished” off of slave labor; on the other hand, the North was an industrial region, which implemented the idea of paid labor. Conflict between the North and the South began to arise, however, when each of their economic needs threatened the other region’s needs. During the early nineteenth century, the North and South were both moving towards mass production; the North relied on their industries and factories, while the South relied on the plantations that were springing up all over. Since its colonization, the South has been a region with a society based on agriculture. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, cotton had become the main harvested crop in the area. With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton was able to be produced much more easily and efficiently. By 1860, cotton represented fifty-seven percent of all United States exports. The immense profitability of cotton, created the South’s dependence on the crop, and its essential component, slavery. In the North, were slavery was illegal, managers of factories and mills had to... ... middle of paper ... ...whether the state/territory would be free or slave), it actually caused more conflict because the free-staters and the pro-slavery activists would fight for the upper hand in said states. The significant number of differences between the North and South led to the understandable idea that the two regions were colonized by two distinct groups of people. The South was an agrarian society, whose economy and commerce was based off of agriculture and slave labor; the North was an urban society, whose economy was dependent on industries and paid employment. The Civil War, although it didn’t being until 1861, was a long time coming because the North and the South had had conflict with one another since the late-eighteenth century, early-nineteenth century; each region, understandably, wasn’t going to give up their way of life to please the other regions of the nation.

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