Essay On The Differences Between North And South

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The differences between the North and the South in the United States were far greater than any geographical distance might infer. Political ideas about freedom and who should be a recipient of it were one defining difference. Economically the North was booming and the South was stalling, and social norms and religious ideas were also on opposite ends of the spectrum. These differences were all factors that turned the South and the North against each other and ultimately led to the Civil War.

Politically speaking slavery had become a divisive topic among Northerners and Southerners. Both the North and South touted ideas of Nationalism and Democracy and both believed that they were honoring the idea of unification. However Southerners believed that supporting succession from the Union was the only way to “re-create a more perfect Union”(390) and that the republicans had caused disunity in the country by sabotaging the constitution’s guarantee of Liberty. They believed that the “enslavement of blacks guaranteed the freedom and equality of whites”(391) The North, now led by President Abraham Lincoln believed that the practice of slavery was not …show more content…

The North strongly supported education and literacy; this could be seen in the amount of public schools and libraries supported by northerners. Because of this educational support, literacy in the North was 8 times greater than in the South. (392) The Leaders of the South believed that education was only for the wealthy and for whites. Because of this, education was outlawed for all slaves and was even very limited among white citizens with little or no wealth. The religion practiced in both the North and the South was predominantly evangelical. The most defining difference was that the Northern Protestants supported social change and spoke out against the practice of slavery, while the Southern evangelicals tended to support

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