GROWING SECTIONALISM
(1830’s-1840’s)
Period 4 (1800-1848)
The East, the West, the North, and the stormy South
all combine to throw the whole ocean into
commotion, to toss its billows to the skies, and to
disclose its profoundest depths.
Daniel Webster
1850
CHPTRS 12 and 14: Economic Nationalism
1
THE NORTH
The Industrial Northeast
SECTIONALISM
(1820-1860)
Starts with textile mills; to wide range of goods
organized labor
start of unions to protect workers rights: pay and conditions
union success limited by panics, hostile employers, immigration
urban life
working class neighborhoods: crowded, unsanitary, crime
city opportunities attracted farmers and immigrants
blacks
1% of population; some rights (land) as states abolish slavery
Lacked political and economic equality
CHPTRS 12 and 14: Economic Nationalism
2
SECTIONALISM
(1820-1860)
THE NORTH
The Agricultural Northwest
Early settlers relied on Mississippi for trade
Tied to East by common markets and federal troops
removal of Am Inds
agriculture
Mechanization (efficiency); whiskey and beer; feed growing cities
CHPTRS 12 and 14: Economic Nationalism
3
THE SOUTH
SECTIONALISM
(1820-1860)
The Agriculture and King Cotton cash crops and cotton
The “peculiar institution”
Slavery boom with cotton gin
Slave sold from upper South to deep South
Most labored in fields, some learned skilled crafts
Reliance on slavery increased slave prices; less
money to invest in industrialized south
Free Blacks
Am Rev emancipation; freed by owners; self-purchase
Stayed in the cities; limited political and economic equality
CHPTRS 12 and 14: Economic Nationalism
4
SECTIONALISM
(1820-1860)
THE SOUTH
White Society
Code of Chivalry
A feudal society
Personal honor; defense of womanhood, paternal instinct to those deemed
inferior
Education
Valued by upper class; “gentlemen professions:”
farming, law, ministry, military
Lower classes: mostly not available beyone the basics
Religion
Preached biblical support; Methodist and Baptist churches
split from North in 1840’s
CHPTRS 12 and 14: Economic Nationalism
5
THE WEST
American Indians
SECTIONALISM
(1820-1860)
Exodus By 1850, most living West of Mississippi (Pres AJacks)
Can Am Inds assimilate?
Life on the Plains
Horses: nomadic Cheyenne and Sioux follow buffalo; more
able to avoid settler conflict
Others: small villages and farm.
The Frontier
Represented a fresh start; limited only by imagination
Environmental Damage
Limited understanding of fragility of nature
Cleared forests; poor
farming habits; near elimination of
CHPTRS 12 and 14: Economic Nationalism
beaver and buffalo
6