The Similarities And Differences Between The Regions Of The United States

Leading up to the Civil War, there were many similarities and differences between the three regions of the United States. They all had their own ways of carrying out everyday life and dealing with politics in their region. Tension between the regions continued to grow over controversial issues, which soon led to the Civil War taking place. In the North, the economy was largely based off of production. There were lots of factories in the North that produced many jobs for people and helped with mass production of goods. Prices went down on some items because they were quicker and easier to produce. People in the North had more money because there were more jobs available, and goods became more affordable due to the factories, so their economy was doing very well before the war. There were
lots of immigrants living in the North that often worked in factories, which had very poor working conditions. They were also quite poor, so their living conditions were not very good either. Business owners, however, led a pretty easy life. They had lots of money and lived in fancy houses with much better living conditions. Of course, slavery was a very important issue to the North, as it was to the rest of the country. The Fugitive Slave Act was a big deal to Northerners because they didn’t want southern plantation owners to be able to take free African Americans claiming that they escaped their plantation. Life in the South was completely different from life in the North.
Southern economy was mainly based on slavery and agriculture. They made lots of money off of cotton from their plantations, but the only way that they would harvest cotton was through slavery. Without slavery, it seemed impossible for the southern economy to even exist. Slaves lived very poorly in the south. They usually didn’t make any money, were forced to work long hours, weren’t fed very well, and some didn’t even have beds to sleep on. They were whipped and beaten by their plantation owners, and if they tried to run away, they could’ve had their achilles tendon snapped. Life for the plantation owners was great. They had lots of money and could do almost whatever they wanted. Plantation owners lived in great houses with very good living conditions and had servant along with of course, slaves. Southerners were very concerned with slavery because that was what their economy and lives depended on. Most Northerners and some Southerners wanted to take away their slaves, but many southerners believed that without slaves the South simply could not function. They all wanted to protect their own way of
life. In the West, mining, ranching, and settlement were all very important economic activities. With the discovery of gold in California just a few years earlier, many miners lived in the West hoping that they could get rich. With all of the new territories, there were many people moving West to settle there. The first settlers that settled in the West were very poor and didn’t have very good living conditions. Some of the settlers in California that were miners struck gold and got rich. They would then live in luxury with great living conditions. Although the West wasn’t really directly involved in the North/ South fighting before the Civil War, it did cause some issues between the two regions. The additions of Kansas, California, and Nebraska, made the issue of slavery an even bigger problem between the North and the South and eventually led to the problem “boiling over” and starting the Civil War. The North, South, and West all had some sort of role in the start of the Civil War. All three regions had very different economics, however, they all somehow tied into each other. Slavery was and still is viewed as the main reason for the Civil War, but there were many more little things that also contributed to it. In the end, a war would’ve happened at sometime due to all of the conflict between the North, South, and West. It was just a matter of time.