Antebellum Period North vs. South

South

Region/Geography

• the climate is generally warm
• its sunny with hot humid summers 
• there are mild winters and heavy rainfalls
• the climate is ideal for agriculture

Society/Culture

• it was mostly made of Europeans of English and Scotch-Irish decent
• there were also African american slaves
• in 1860 there were 4 million African american slaves 
• the united states was the biggest slave holding republic

Society/Culture

• life in the south revolved around the small wealthy class of planters
• planters were the aristocracy of the south
• they had fun activities such as hunting,dancing,races,and seeing cockfights

Economy

• was based on agriculture
• industries and towns developed a slower pace than the north
• only a few cities developed as trading centers in the south
• based on agriculture crops such as cotton,tobacco,,sugar cane,and indigo
• they were known as cash crops and grown on plantations

Economy

• plantations were supported by slave labor
• cotton took over as king of economy
• slavery was essential for the prosperity of the southern economy
• south had little manufacturing skills and they wanted cheap imports
• they also believed that tariffs would scare away the foreign market

Transportation

• Steamships
• railroads
• transportation was used for import and exports to and from the markets

North

Region/Geography

• climate is of warm summers
• there were snowy cold winters
• the terrain is rocky not good for farming
• most of the forest wasmade up if timber used for ship building

Society/Culture

• the overall population grew from about  5 million to 31 million
• part of it was due to immigration
• between 1830 and 1850  over 2 million Irish,Germans Northern Europeans came
• cities in the north thhrived as centers of commerce
• served as centers of trade