Civil War
Before the civil war that tore the fabric of American life, there were three sections of American people with different economic, cultural and political attitudes. The balance of power was kept by different alliances, which came up in the pre-civil war period. The west was the balancing power and it was its shift that decided the course of American history. While it was allied with the south for economic reasons, a delicate balance was maintained. The minute the west allied with the north, the shift resulted in irreconcilable differences and led to war. The boundaries of the sections were very fluid but the basic sections in the 1840s-1860s were the north, which included New England, New York. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the west which included the present mid-west from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa to Minnesota and the south which included Maryland to Texas and Missouri to Mississippi. Northeast The northeast was comparatively advanced, industrially. The dominating class comprised of the bankers, manufacturers and merchants. The growth of industry of America was mainly in the north. The northeast section was known for its trading. The merchants realized more returns in manufacturing than the
So one can conclude that there was greater interdependence between the northeast and the west than between the west and the south. The Whig party was split into those who opposed slavery openly and those who supported it because of their trade with the southern planters and the latter had powerful backing from the south. Though this failed, it was publicized and the northerners thought that the southerners were trying to acquire a new slave state and insisted that there was a southern conspiracy. There was a rural character with few towns and cities consisting of a diffused population of 13 persons per square mile including the slaves. Southerners were also interested in areas in the South American continent where slave states might be carved out. The west has always been considered more democratic than all the other sections because of the fact that there was no economic domination of any one section of society in contrast to the merchant-dominated north and the planter-dominated south. The success of plantation agriculture hindered the growth of a more diversified economy. The emergence of the Negro as a free citizen, created a new dimension in the political and social life of the nation, making vast changes in the arrangement of classes and in the course of industrial development. Henry clay tried to introduce a compromise which would solve the above problem as well as the problem of slavery in Washington D. The dominant class of society in the south was the planter class. On 20 december1861, South Carolina unanimously voted for secession from the union. The hot weather in the predominantly agrarian setup is seen as another facet in the southern makeup. Very few ever attained wealth and prominence and the majority lived in poverty. This led to the rise of the coal industry in the northeast as the main coalmines were situated there. They were the only people in the south who defied sectionalism and during the Civil War they resisted secession.
Common topics in this essay:
South Carolina,
Farmer's Register,
Charles Bearde,
Europeans Slavery,
Southernism Southernism,
Washington DC,
North Carolina,
Virginia Tennessee,
Negroes Amongst,
Charleston Savanna,
civil war,
south carolina,
missouri compromise,
people south,
north carolina,
planter class,
north south,
rural character,
medium planters,
fugitive slaves,
virginia north carolina,
missouri compromise 1820,
effects civil war,
fugitive slave act,
major medium planters,
|
Acceptance Essays
