North VS. South
Akiah LLoyd 9G
Climate and Population
The North has a climate of warm summers and snowy cold winters. The terrain is rocky, hilly, and not good for farming. These conditions along with a short growing season made farming difficult.
Population-Population of the South was made up of Europeans and enslaved Africans.The total population of the South reached 12 million, one third of who were slaves.Only one fourth of the Southern population owned slaves and most of these were the planters. The rest of the population was made up of white independent farmers, tenant farmers, laborers, or frontier families.
In the North the overall population rose from about 5 million to 31 million during this time. Part of this increase was due to massive immigration. Between 1830 and 1850 along, over 2 million Irish, German and other northern Europeans arrived in the United States. Most of them settled in the North.
Cities and Economy
Cities in the North thrived as centers of commerce. They were set up along the Atlantic coast and served as centers of trade between the North and Europe. Many people from rural New England moved to the cities looking for employment opportunities. In 1800 about 5 percent of the population lived in cities, but by 1850 nearly 15 percent did.
Economy-Since the economy was based on agriculture, industries and towns developed at a slower pace than in the North. There were many small towns along the banks of rivers and the coasts. Only a few large cities developed as trading centers in the South. Plantations were so large and so distant from each other that they became almost self sufficient, like small towns.
The Northern economy was based on many different industries. These industries included shipping, textiles, lumber, furs, and mining. The majority of people lived on small farms and found that much of the land was suited for subsistence farming—raising food crops and livestock for family use—rather than producing goods to export, or send to other countries.
Northern geography
The terrain is rocky,hilly, and not good for farming. These conditions along with a short growing season made farming difficult. Most of the forest was made up of timber used for shipbuilding. There are many sheltered bays and inlets on the Atlantic coast. Settlers found that ships could sail along wide rivers into many of these bays. Most of the rivers are fast, shallow, and hard to navigate. At a certain point, called the Fall Line—a plateau over which eastward-flowing rivers fell onto the plain—the many waterfalls of most rivers made them no longer navigable.
Slave plantation
Southern geography
Culture and Transportation
In the north Merchants, manufacturers, wage earners, and new business owners brought new ideas to the North. The majority of Northerners were Protestant believers. Villages became strong centers of community activities. Both religion and education were organized institutes. Most towns had both schools and churches. Public education grew in the north after the 1830’s. Although, a minimum of boys went to secondary school, and college was reserved mostly for the wealthy.
Transportation-Methods of long-distance transports, such as steamships and railroads, affected the South because products could more easily be sold to more distant markets. By 1860 about 10,000 miles of railroad spread across the Southern states.
In the north During the first half of the 1800’s transportation vastly improved and the size of the United States more than doubled. By 1860 there were over 88,000 miles of surfaced roads. Canals, mostly built in the North, were a cheap source of transportation. Most of the new rail lines were in the North.