Antebellum North And South Analysis

In “How Different from Each Other Were the Antebellum North and South”, Edward Pessen argues that the North and South were similar but fundamentally different. They were similar in most of the aspects of common life such as; economy, social structure, and politics. The North and South were both centered around agriculture. They were both centered around a, agriculture, which supported most of the economy before the market revolution. Northern farms mostly grew grains and corn, while the southern farms grew tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton. The goal for the North and South was to be self-sufficient, and have influence and power. While in the North, the wealth came from industry and the market revolution, but in the South, the wealth could mostly
McPherson also argues that the North and the South could not live under the same government for much longer. McPherson believed that the only similarities between the North and South were the language, constitution, legal system, economy, and Protestant religion. Having the same language and law system wasn’t the problem, the problem was how the language and the laws were put in place. The North and South were both using the language as another factor that drove a wedge in between them. The South was more centered in tradition, fearing change. The North however, was interested in modernizing, and improving. For example, “In 1820, 10 percent of free-states lived in urban areas, compared to five percent in the slave states.” (McPherson, 425). This just shows that the North and South were growing farther and farther
Document number 66 Fredrick Douglass on the Desire for Freedom by Fredrick Douglass suggests that Douglass was against slavery and he thought that slavery was a moral problem, which could connect to Pessen because he argues that slavery was not known by the North, and even some politicians from the time didn’t want to deal with the conflict. Document 67, Rise of the Cotton Kingdom written by Fredrick Norcom supports Pessen’s argument. Fredrick Norcom argued that the South and the cotton kingdom was a way to “get rich fast”. This was because the land was cheaper in the South, so for a little investment, people could get a high reward.
Rise of the Cotton Kingdom can also be related to Pessen’s views because Pessen writes about how less free white men owned land in the North than in the South. This could be because the land was cheaper and it was easier to get a high return. Pessen also writes “Northern fortunes, in fact, owed more to commerce and finance than to manufacturing,” this is another way that the economy was different between the North and South (Pessen,