How were the north and south alike and different in terms of culture and economics during the Antebellum period?

Thanks!

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Originally posted by MkStfnz:
How were the north and south alike and different in terms of culture and economics during the Antebellum period?

Thanks!

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The South was largely agricultural, producing cash crops in the plantation system, and selling them for shipment in market towns and particularly in port cities. This I understand to have been the mainstay of the Southern economy. Recall "king cotton" although that was not the only important crop; tobacco was produced and marketed similarly. Under this system, land ownership was the most important measure of wealth and social status.

The North tended to greater economic diversity, with mostly subsistence farming by small-scale farmers who produced crops in excess of needs for market. The port cities of New England were home to major mercantile enterprises (including the slave traders who provided labor to the southern plantations) and America's nascent industrial establishment. The "North" also included what we now think of as the West, with large scale ranching producing beef as a "cash crop" Under this system, banking, business interests, and other forms of capital than land were also important.

Alan Moore

Thanks, Alan. Do you have any information on cultural differences?

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Originally posted by MkStfnz:
Thanks, Alan. Do you have any information on cultural differences?

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Not really, no. New England was originally colonized by mercantile types (the puritans) who came here because they thought it a good business opportunity. My own English ancestors were delivered to a penal colony in what later became "the south" but I doubt that the cultural influence of the penal establishments spread very far. Of course the south also included the very large Francophone community of New Oreans and environs, but the cultural leaders of New England were also influenced by French political and economic thought. By the time of the civil war, cultural isolation may have had a greater impact on the South, which had significantly less contact with Europe than did New England, but I don't know just how much difference that would have made.

Alan Moore

I wish I knew a lot more about the antebellum South than I do, and had not missed an excellent course entitled "The South and the Sectional Image" while in school.

That said, the South was not primarily the plantation life portrayed in "Gone With The Wind." Charleston, prior to the war, was the richest city in the United States with vigorous trade in both Indigo and Rice. Many free blacks also lived in the South, the largest population of which were in North Carolina. Some fought for the South in the Civil War and their descendants were saddened by the Confederate flag protests a couple of years ago.

Many whites were very poor; farm work was available and they often worked side by side with slaves. At the same time, when farm activity was low they had to work other assignments and learned many trade skills such as building railroads, mining, etc.

With the possible exception of New Orleans, religious expression was overwhelmingly protestant. A near-chivalrous code of honor and gentlemanly manner marked behavior and is still discernable to a degree in rooted Southerners.

Hope this little morsel helps...'fuse

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Originally posted by coldfuse:
I wish I knew a lot more about the antebellum South than I do, and had not missed an excellent course entitled "The South and the Sectional Image" while in school.

That said, the South was not primarily the plantation life portrayed in "Gone With The Wind." Charleston, prior to the war, was the richest city in the United States with vigorous trade in both Indigo and Rice. Many free blacks also lived in the South, the largest population of which were in North Carolina. Some fought for the South in the Civil War and their descendants were saddened by the Confederate flag protests a couple of years ago.

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Yes, perhaps I should have specified that "the plantation system" does not refer exclusively to the large and wealthy plantations popular in romantic historical fiction. In the far more common real plantations, the plantation owner worked in the fields side by side with his slaves, and in some cases with casual day labor as well. Very extensive lands were required to support much of a leisure class in this system, and such plantations were pretty rare, really.

Alan Moore