Life in the North and South

Directions: Research the following topics and figure out answers to the questions. Write your notes and answers on lined paper or your notebook paper. You are expected to use the time completely, be through and become knowledgeable. Write down any questions you have related to the material on your paper and bring them up during the class discussion. Warning: If you are found to be using your research time for other things, it will hurt your learning and grade. If you think or claim to be done, you are not! The class will research as much as time allows before discussion. Since there is always more to research and learn, Mr. Spitzer encourages you to look into the topic more on your own time.

Topics to Research

Agriculture in the South

Cotton and slavery

Subsistence farming

Large plantation status

Slave life

Pro and anti slavery arguments

Life on Northern farms

Northern factories and labor

Blacks in North

Cities North and South

Questions to be able to discuss

  1. Describe farming in the South before the Civil War. What were the staple crops and how were they raised on plantations? What was it like to be a large plantation owner?
  2. Why did the South, after 1800, grow increasing dependent on cotton for prosperity? Why were slaves needed on cotton plantations?
  3. Why was cotton production and westward expansion connected? Describe the geographic area in the South that was the world largest and most productive cotton-growing region.
  4. What crops did the small subsistence farms in the South grow and for whom? Describe the typical white small farmer.
  5. Why were the large planters able to hold many of the leading political positions in the South? Why did the average Southerner accept the institution of slavery?
  6. State the arguments that were presented by George Tucker in his book The Laws of Wages, Profits and Rents to show that slavery was not profitable. Summarize the main points of the pro-slavery argument.
  7. What was it like to be a slave? What did slaves do? How were slaves treated? How did the owners keep control of their slaves? How did slave resist slavery?
  8. Describe farming in the North before the Civil War. What were the crops raised on farms and how were they raised? What was it like to be a farmer?
  9. Who supplied labor to the factories and mills in the North between 1840 and 1860? Describe the working conditions in the factories and mills of the North. What was the pay, working hours and safety conditions in the factories and mills?
  10. How were blacks discriminated against in the northern jobs and unions? How were they “used” by employers to weaken the labor movement?
  11. What were the large cities of the North like between 1840 and 1860? Name the largest ten of these cities and give their populations in 1860. Name the ten largest cities of the South and give their populations in 1860. What were Southern cities like?

Critical Thinking

  1. Compare the laboring of Northern factory and mill labor with that of Southern slaves on the plantations. Compare areas of working conditions, safety, work hours, living conditions, pay/provision, social advancement expectations, education, and freedoms. Which region’s laboring class had it better?
  2. Why was it necessary to teach slaves how to be slaves? How did the methods of disciplining slaves affect the way slaves behaved?
  3. When the Civil War broke out why were poor whites and small farmers who owned no slaves willing to fight on the Confederate side?
  4. Describe the aspects of slavery that made it a dehumanizing institution. What effects of slavery can you find in today’s society?
  5. Does today’s South still have it own distinctive way of life? Explain.
  6. In what ways did industrialization in the North strengthen democracy and unite the nation? In what ways did it promote sectionalism? In what ways did it promote new problems?