Religious Difference Between The North And South example essay topic

The American South represents the more agricultural sector of the United States; it was and in some places is still quite far behind the Northern sectors of America. Northerners tended to be better educated than their southern partners. The North also had a much larger population than the South with a 21.5 million population, whilst the south had a population of 9 million. The fundamental differences between the two can be classified through religion, the slave movement as well as the agricultural and industrial differences between the north and south of North America. Religion played a major role in the split between the north and south. The original migrants were purely Englishmen abroad, moving abroad to follow their own religion without the authoritarian Church of England.

A split between the two appears to be evident in the naming of the states; all southern states were named after English monarchs, whilst in the North none are named after English monarchs, this is due to the mainly dissenting population of the north, who wanted nothing to do with England. This is due to the domination the Church of England had over the south, whilst the Northerners pursued newer approaches such as Protestantism, Baptist and Methodist movements. The Baptist and Methodist movements seemed to reflect the newer mood and plans of the nation, and it is this that attracted the new followers particularly in the North. The United States still has the highest population of church attendees, more so in the South, this is partly why those who travelled around the country attempting to convert found most of their support in the south. The religious difference between the North and South was the start of the split.

The first fundamental difference between the North and South was the slave trade, and subsequent racist hatred. All southern states with the exception of Texas had a slave population of between 25-30% of the entire population. Southerners saw slavery as a constructive measure, whilst northerners began to see slavery as immoral. The legalization of slavery varied from state to state, and there was no overall law on slavery during most of the eighteenth century. The use of African slaves in tobacco fields proved successful and more slaves were gradually imported, the practice was by no means a purely southern policy, however in the north the slaves had little agricultural work and instead were mainly used as domestic servants.

However the creation of the cotton gin by Ely Whitney enabled the south to move from an agricultural to a cotton movement. Cotton had so many more benefits than tobacco, as it didn^aeurtm; exhaust the soil as tobacco did, and there was always going to be a steady demand for it. The cotton trade did drastically increase the numbers of slaves, the slave population was estimated at 700,000 in 1790 and it grew drastically to over 4 million by 1860. Despite these high numbers, 80% if southerners did not own slaves and 80% of those that did own slaves owned no more than 50, which undermines the presentations in movies such as ^aEUR~Gone With the Wind^aEURTM which portrays huge plantations of slaves. The South defended their use of slaves, claiming that in the south they were property, they were looked after, and most were household slaves, whilst in the north they were immigrants, and bad treatment in life endangering jobs was common as there was always a supply of slaves coming over. Slavery was however a political issue and not a moral one, it was banned post war, the North industrialized, while the South continued to focus on agriculture and cotton.

The North had undoubtedly made steps towards becoming fully industrialized, through improved railroad systems, more mechanical farming which required less workers, however the steps were not as large as many assume. Southern agriculture was highly advanced and arguably rivalled many on the world market. The North produced 4 thousand bales of cotton per annum whilst the South produced close to 5 million bales. Historian Collins believes that it is perhaps more accurate to describe the North as a ^aEUR~highly efficient agricultural producer^aEURTM rather than a generally industrialized sector.

This is probably a lot more accurate as the North had many factories and booming businesses, but the businesses were the personification of capitalism as they were individual, highly scattered however they did not extend to a world market, it is in this respect that the South were successful. In the 20th century America is an agricultural country, the south is the richest agricultural centre and is responsible for 60% of agricultural exports. During the 1850's attacks on the Southern ideals, the south had been seen to represent a collection of states that advocated slavery, but ^aEUR~The South^aEURTM was accused and condemned as ^aEUR~un-American^aEURTM according to Collins. This conclusion was come to, as it was believed that there were no opportunities for ordinary citizens to flourish economically, and that plantation owners were the only people able to succeed and even this was through the exploitation of slaves, and that the South had not grown economically. There is a lot of evidence that suggests that there was a lot of economic backwardness however as aforementioned the North had not progressed as well as was claimed, and the South was a very well established agricultural region of North America.

It is also arguable that the economic growth achieved by the South later on did very little for the nation as a whole, and only benefited the plantation owners, and definitely was not of any advantage to the black society in any way. This is a prime example of how the North and South would differ later on. When the North did completely blossom economically and industrially it was of great benefit to the nation as a whole, and not purely to the South as it had been when the cotton trade boomed. This is not to discredit what the South managed to achieve, it is however evident that the North brought more to the nation than the South had managed. The North and South also began to differ on ideals and attitudes. The rich and successful in the South had the success and wealth placed upon them through their birth rights, whilst the successful people in the North tended to work for their place in the American social hierarchy with vocations such as bankers and lawyers.

This helps to further illustrate the differing outlooks that the progressive North and the repressive South possessed. The American South took on many meanings during this period; the South was seen as economically backwards, and socially and morally corrupt; through the slave owners and the agricultural movement that was followed. Fundamentally the Southerners followed a less liberal belief system than the Northerners, and also followed many traditions, religious and otherwise that the Northerners had wanted to leave behind in Britain. However it is unfair to portray the South as a completely backward movement, as the southerners did in fact have some progressive ideals and also succeeded agriculturally, but the two differed, and the Civil War can be accredited to the confrontational stance taken by both the North and the South during this time period.

Bibliography

Andrew Sinclair, A Concise History of the United States, Sutton Publishing Limited 1999 Maldwyn A.
Jones, The Limits of Liberty American History 1607-1980, Oxford University Press 1983 Steve Collins, The Origins of Americas Civil War, Edward Arnold 1981.