US History

U.S. History Study Guide

©2018 of 194 The North and South begin to Sectionalize In the eighty years between the American Revolution and the Civil War, the North and South developed along distinct and opposing lines; economically, politically, and culturally. While the North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse deeply affected by social reform movements, like Abolitionism and Women’s rights: the South became a cotton kingdom which was founded on slavery, whose inhabitants generally abstained opposed reformist tendencies. 11.10 Northern Culture Manufacturing first took hold in New England. The region’s poor soil made large-scale farming unprofitable with its extensive waterways and steady influx of immigrants who favored the development of manufacturing. The waterways supplied power for mills and facilitated trade, while the immigrants comprised a nearly inexhaustible labor supply. Small New England mills gave way to larger, more productive ones, and the expansion of foreign markets allowed the factory system to blossom. Factories became the center of planned towns designed to accommodate the needs of the factory owners and workers. Problems of Urbanization The rapid growth in urban areas was not matched by the growth of services. Clean water, trash removal, housing, and public transportation lagged behind for the general masses while the wealthy received these services first. Bad water and poor sanitation produced poor health, and epidemics of typhoid fever, typhus, and cholera were common. Police and fire protection were usually inadequate and the development of professional forces was resisted because of the cost and the potential for political patronage and corruption. Rapid growth helped to produce a wave of violence in the cities. In New York City in 1834, the Democrats fought the Whigs with such vigor the state militia had to be called in. New York and Philadelphia witnessed race riots in the mid-1830, and a New York mob sacked a Catholic convent in 1834. In the 1830’s, one hundred and fifteen major incidents of mob violence were recorded. Street crime was common in all the major cities. Everyday Life in the North The output of goods and services increased and the purchasing power of the average worker doubled. The household labor system was breaking down and the number of wage-earners exceeded for the first time the number of independent, self-employed Americans. Even so, everyday living was still quite simple. Clothes and dishes were washed as need and supplies arose. Housing was simple for most with homes consisting of one or two-room cabins, heated by open fireplaces, with water carried in from springs or wells. For the working man, rural or urban, life was hard. Achieve Page 146