Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The North and South -- Always Divided?

While the reading certainly addresses slavery as one of the major factors contributing to the American Civil War, it does not oversimplify the complexity of the time period.  The article states that there were two other potential causes of sectional rift--overall cultural differences as well as the industrialization of the North versus the stagnant agricultural economy of the South. At the same time, however, there seems to be a suggestion that the two regions, despite their perceived dissimilarities, actually shared many more values than they thought.

When you respond tonight, focus more on the similarities than the dissimilarities of the two regions. What do both of these regions still hold dear?  How much does it remind us of the United States today? 

13 comments:

  1. Even though there are many dissimilarities between the North and the South, there are still many similarities. Even thought the reading talked more about how there were more differences between the two for example when the reading said that the north and the south had two completely different cultures, they shared the same economic values. Both the north and the south agree that they need the labor and the work to help save their economy. Other than that I didn't really see any other similarities in the reading because It seemed as though if the North felt one way then the south completely disagreed and the other way around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well like Meghan said there are a lot of dissimilarities between the North and the South and not to many similarities. Well the way they are similar is very interesting because they both want there own way, and like we've talked about they will try and keep trying until one side gets there way or they agree on a settlement. But not only that but both sides are depending on the workers to keep the economy up because in the factories and on the farms workers were getting paid little with lots of work. Even in some cases if a worker was not at work in some cases they would be replaced immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There are a lot of dissimilarities between the North and the South but there are also some similarities. One similarity is that they are both a part of the same country. This means that they both speak the same language. Also, the north and south are both trying to expand their territories. They dislike the Indians, and do not want them to be in the country. They dislike them because they cannot trust them. Also, during the civil war both sides had a lot of weaknesses. The North and South both had poor medical care, and they also used the same weapons in the beginning. They agreed on some things such as expanding and the importance of labor.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The reading did mostly talk about the differences between the north and the south and how they couldnt get along very well. One thing though that is the same today that it used to be is that the main focus of the north AND the south is their economy. Both want to do what is best for their economy. they both wanted to do whatever was best for their economy and it didnt matter to them how it would effect the north or south as long as it helped their economy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. As we have discussed in class, the North and the South had many differences, the bigger the industrialization of the north versus the south who kept being more agricultural. But obviously they had some similarities such as that they made part of the same country as Cristina said and wanted to expand their territories to the west. Also the two are focused on an economic growth even if they didn't have the same thoughts and the same ideas of how to grow the economy. There is one thing that they agreed and that thing is that work and labor were needed to grow the economy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Even though the North and the South didn't believe to have similarities, in reality they had many. It was because of their conflict of interest, struggle for identity and struggle for power that looked like North and South differed greatly. For instance, similar to the South, North only advocated emancipation of slavery because emancipation would favor the whites in the North, not the blacks. Plus, north's antislavery movement was not a pro-black movement. In fact, it had a greater anti-black aspect. They were anti-slavery but they did not accord eqality to the blacks(slavery was sectional but "Negrophobia" was national. In addtion, in the beginning, both North and South thought that slavery would eventually ware out. However, as the north started to industrialize rapidly, which set north upon a more rapid rate of growth than the south. South showed the fear of being overpowered and that is when the conflict between South and the North began.

    ReplyDelete
  7. After reading the assignment, I realized that the North and the South were not as black and white different as one might first think. Although the North is often seemed as the side with more "morals" it actually really didn't. Most people in the North did not really see the Slaves as human or wanted the abolitionist movement to happen in order to liberate the slaves. For example, Lincoln who is often known as the president who liberated the slaves wanted to deport them at first and so did many others. They slaves were not seen as human, but something more resembling animals, like a pest to the Americans. Also, the manufacturing companies in the North which were seen as more "modern" and "better" than the Souths slave made goods depended largely on the raw materials made by the slaves. In reality, the North and the South were not all that different, they actually depended on each other a lot. However, once the Norths population began to flourish, and they began to get more power the balance was shifted creating envy and competition between the North and the South further stretching their feeble connection, and when new states began to be added their was even more competition for power which eventually caused the relationship and similarities between them to break.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Like everyone said, there were more differences than similarities. However, both the North and South wanted to expand to the west and better the economy. The North wanted to better the economy through industrialization and factories, while the South wanted to keep the traditional agricultural labor. Furthermore, the North depended on the South for some of the raw materials. Without the agricultural goods, some industrial manufactured goods would not be possible to make. Also, both knew that slavery was going to eventually pass.

    ReplyDelete
  9. There is no question that the North and the South were extremely divided before the Civil War. But in a way, their biggest differences were also their greatest similarities. The main divides between the two regions were the controversy over slavery and the political struggle for power. The struggle for power was a similarity because both regions were trying to increase representation for their region by adding more states. it is hard to consider the dispute over slavery to be a similarity because one side was strongly anti-slavery, and the other was strongly pro-slavery. But both regions were extremely racist. The Northerners originally opposed the spread of slavery because it would take opportunities away from free white laborers, and they didn't try to abolish slavery to help the slaves but to spite the slave owners. To be honest, these same like the same problems that we have in our country. The country is still split down the middle into two parties that are eternally vying for power in the government. And although we now have an African-American president, there is still rampant racism in our country.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I totally agree with the last point that Stefan mentions, the two parties that are vying the power over the country but I see this as a necessity for the country to quickly develop. Speaking back to sectionalism, more people might have noticed that how much different culturally the South and the North were. The economics and the idea on slavery were very different. However, two different economics, one based on agricultural (cotton) the other based on industry. This made the United States self-sufficient which can be consider as the biggest similarity. Also, United States today's government, the two major parities fight over power, is the reason why the U.S. is as strong as today. It is because its disputation and sectionalism from the history.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The material strongly emphasizes on differences between the North and the South. It is mainly about their different views on slavery (it does not necessary mean the North cares about slaves), and different economy systems. My understanding of the reading is that the North did not really care about the slaves. Their anti-slavery movement is more about putting themselves in a higher position and better economy than the South. Therefore, their similarity could be their discrimination against slaves and the fact that they are both in a union. I did not really understand the reading very well, this is only my observation. There is probably some misunderstanding.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Although they had their differences, the north and south were both in agreement of one thing: expanding west. The south and north did have completely different ideas on what they were going to do with the land, but the westward expansion would have brought wealth and prosperity to the country regardless of what was physically done with the land. The north, wanting to industrialize it was the better, safer option, but the south wanting to expand farmland in the area would have also brought wealth, they were just completely different ideas with completely different agendas.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The people of the north and the south are still the same people living in the same country. The only thing being that their relatively minor differences that just so happen to be the one or two most debatable differences morally, economically etc. that opposing parties in this situation could have. They still all believe in things like family values and christianity and democracy. Not to mention they both share the western ideology of moving forward and constantly getting better as you do; that the future will be better than today; tomorrow is a new day and so on.

    ReplyDelete