Chapter Nine

Sectionalism
 The North
• Two parts
– The Northeast
• New England
• Middle Atlantic
– The Old Northwest
• From Ohio to Minnesota
 Organized Labor
• Farmers and artisans were now dependant on
factory wages
• Due to low pay, long hours, and unsafe working
conditions, unions logically formed
• Commonwealth vs. Hunt
– Peaceful unions had the right to negotiate labor
contracts
• Improvement was limited by
– Periodic depressions
– Employers and courts that were hostile to unions
– Abundant source of cheap labor
 Urban Life
• Slums expanded due to rapid growth
• Crowded housing
• Poor sanitation
• Infectious disease
• High rates of crime
 African Americans
• African Americans were denied membership
to unions
• Sometimes hired as strike-breakers, but fired
directly after
 Agricultural Northwest
• Old Northwest
– Ohio
– Indiana
– Illinois
– Michigan
– Wisconsin
– Minnesota
• Tied to the northern states by:
– Military campaigns
– Building of canals and railroads
 Agriculture
• Steel plow
– John Deer
• Mechanical reaper
– Cyrus McCormick
• Grain used to feed cattle and make beer
 New Cities
• Buffalo, Cleaveland, Detroit, Chicago,
Cincinnati, St. Louis grew larger
 Immigration
• Sudden increase in 1832
• Few went to the south
• Result of
– Famines in Europe
– Inexpensive ocean transportation
– Reputation of the US as a economic oppurtunity
 Irish
• Two million, almost half, came from Ireland
• Mostly farmers
• Discriminated against because of Roman
Catholic background
• Congregated in northern cities
• Initially excluded from the Democratic
Organization of Tammany hall
• Later took this organization over
 Germans
• One million Germans came to the US in the
1840’s and 50’s
• Searched for cheap farmland
• Political influence was originally limited
• Strong supporters of public education
• Opponents of slavery
 ativists
• Native born americans feared the immigrant
takeover
• Protestants
• Distrusted roman catholicism
• Lead to riots in cities
• The Supreme Order of the Star Spangled Banner
• Became the Know-Nothing party
• Nativism faded away with the coming of the Civil
War
The South
 Agriculture and King Cotton
• Small factories in the south produced 15
percent of the nations goods
• Tobacco, Rice, and Sugarcane
• Cotton cloth was more affordable because of
the development of textile mills and the
cotton gin
 Slavery
• Wealth was measured in terms of land and
slaves
• Supported slavery because it was ‘good for
slave and master’
• Four million slaves in 1860
• Slaves did whatever they were told, mostly in
the fields or in construction
 Resistance
• Denmarck Vesey
– 1822
• Nat Turner
– 1831
• Quickly and violently suppressed
 Free African Americans
• 250,000 in the south were not slaves
• Some emancipated during the revolution
• Children of white men
• Self purchase
 White Society
• Aristocracy
– 100 slaves, 1000 acre farm
– Politically powerful
• Farmers
– Fewer than 20 slaves, 100 acres
– Modest living
• Poor Whites
– Hillbillies, poor white trash. Lived on hills as fake farmers
• Mountain People
– Lived in the mountains
– Loyal to the union
– Disliked slavery
 Southern Thought
• Code of Chivalry
– Largely a feudal society
– Strong sense of honor
– Defense of womanhood
– Paternalistic treatment of inferiors
• Education
– Upper class valued education
– Slaves prohibited from reading and writing
• Religion
– Methodist and Baptist church supported slavery
– Unitarians challenged slavery
– Catholics and Episcopalians took a neutral stance
 The West
• Native Americans
– All living west of the Mississippi river
• Life on the Plains
– Horses became a revolutionary benefit for Indians
– Nomadic buffalo hunters
 The Frontier
• Mountain Men
– Native born white Americans saw the Rocky Mountains as a total
wilderness
– Lewis and Clark were considered Mountain Men
– They served as guides and pathfinders
• White Settlers on the Western Frontier
– Settlers in the western frontier were almost the same as the early
colonists
– Many died early from disease or malnutrition
• Women
– Women on the frontier had a limited life span due to pregnancy,
endless work, and isolation
• Environmental Damage
– Forests were cut down, and the beaver and buffalo were hunted
almost to extinction
 Industrial Northeast
Establishments Employees Value
North Atlantic 69,831 900,107 1,213,897,518
Old Northwest 33,335 188,651 346,675,290
Southern 27,779 166,803 248,090,580
Western 8,777 50,204 71,229,989