Compare And Contrast The North And The South Before The Civil War

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The United States before the civil war was “divided” into 2 sections. The North and the South, the conflict leading up to the civil war was the lack of unity. This is called “sectionalism”, which means that you only have interest in your own “section”. How can we compare and contrast the North and the South?

First of all, the North was a very industrialized area. 70% of the nation's railroads were in this section, and factories were very common. The North believed paid workers were more productive than slave labor, therefore slavery was banned. This helped the factories produce more profit because there was no competition between slave and paid labour. Another characteristic the North had was free education. This allowed for people to be more educated, and jump up to a higher social class, but unfortunately, …show more content…

It’s economy was mostly based of agriculture, more specifically cotton and tobacco. The south favored slavery because they liked the idea of owning property that worked for them, free of charge. The slaves were so low on the social ladder that they weren't even considered human. There was no free education, so if your parents couldn't afford a tutor, you could not learn. This caused people to stay in the social class they were born in. The South did not favor tariffs because it was a very rural place, and they needed european imports.

If the North and South are so different, do they have any similarities? Well first of all, both sections were part of the united states, no matter how much they thought they were their own country. Another similarity to point out is that both relied on each other. The North needed the South's cotton to make textiles, and the South needed the North to buy their goods. Also, women and african-americans did not have much rights in both sections. The belief that women should only be wives and mothers and the idea that whites were better than blacks was still a very well supported