North vs. South
Abby Per.6
Transportation in the North
In the north many people used river travel because it was faster and also a cheaper way to travel. Others would say that they traveled by rail because they thought it was faster than steamboats. Canals also became a good way to travel because many people didn't have rivers around them to travel. Another way people traveled in the north was on the national road. The road had a smooth gravel surface. Many people believed that is was a joy to travel on.
Transportation in the South
Most of the transportation in the south was on river. The riverboats traveled hundreds of miles down the river. The most important product they shipped by river was Cotton. Since river travel was the main source for transportation, many towns and cities were against a waterway. There very little railroads built in the south. Most southerners were happy that iron rails were made and came from Virginia's Tredegar Iron Works.
Geography in the North
In the north they had a lot of flat plains which did not make it easy to farm there. They also had central plains which was a large forested region. They had hills that were sharply v shaped valleys. They were covered with thick forested area. The north also had hundreds of bays that were used for harbors. The climate in the north had four different seasons. There would be freezing winters and hot summers.
Geography in the South
In the South they enjoyed freezing winters and hot, humid summers. They had a lot of rainfall which resulted in long growing seasons which made the south a perfect place to grow crops. Along the shoreline they had many wide coastal plains. There were also many swamps and marshes that helped grow rice and sugarcane. One of the most important features of the south was their broad, flat rivers.
Economy in the North
In the North the factories they had were a source to great wealth. Instead of making things by hand they used machines. One of the machines they used was the textile mill. The textile mill spun cotton into threads, and weave the threads into cloth. To power the machines they used streams to turn a wheel which supplied energy for the machinery. They used steam engines to help business people build factories.
Economy in the South
In the South their economy was bases on agriculture. Many plantation owners used slaves to grow their crops. Cotton engine was a machine that separated cotton fiber from seeds. Cotton was the most important crop in the south. The south had one factory that was named Tredegar Iron Works. They used mostly slave labor but they made weapons and ammunition for the U.S. Army.
Society in the North
In the north people were neither wealthy nor powerful. The north didn't have paved streets or sewers. The neighborhoods were crowded and very dirty. The blacks in the north were free, but they still weren't treated the same as whites were. They couldn't vote, hold office, or attend white churches and also schools. Many immigrants came from Ireland and Germany to come to the north.
Society in the South
A very small group of wealthy plantation owners dominated the economy and politics in the south. Mostly all of the white families worked on their own land, A small portions of the blacks were free blacks. They had to wear special badges, pay extra taxes and live a separate life than the whites. The other blacks were slaves which was the majority of them. They were cooks, carpenters, blacksmiths, house servants or nursemaids. A lot of the slaves worked out in the fields. In the south they had a social structure which went like this, few rich plantation owners at the top, then white farmers and workers in the middle and then African Americans at the bottom.
Why were there slaves in the South and not in the North?