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Two Nations
1
Two Nations
READING FOCUS
KEY TERMS
TARGET READING SKILL
• Why do some historians think the Civil
War was unavoidable?
Union
prejudice
obsolete
Identify Contrasts Copy the chart below.
As you read this section, fill in the chart
with the major cultural and economic differences between the North and the South.
• What arguments did abolitionists use
against slavery?
SECTION OBJECTIVES
1. Find out why some historians think
the Civil War was unavoidable.
2. Discover arguments used by abolitionists against slavery.
3. Learn how Southerners viewed
slavery.
4. Understand some important differences between the North and the
South.
• How did Southerners view slavery?
Activating Prior Knowledge Have
students list the types of tensions that
arose in the 1840s and 1850s around
the issue of slavery.
In the 1850s, growing numbers of Americans
believed that the North and the South were
moving in different directions.
Setting the Scene
A spool of thread spun in a northern mill and a boll of raw cotton
grown in the South symbolize the
difference between the industrial
power of the North and the agricultural strength of the South in
the 1850s.
TARGET READING SKILL
Ask students to complete the graphic
organizer on this page as they read the
section. See the Section Reading
Support Transparencies for a completed
version of this graphic organizer.
Starting in 1861, states of the North clashed with
states of the South in a brutal conflict that Americans call the Civil War. The
outcome of the war would determine whether the Union, as the unified nation
was called, would survive or whether the country would split into two independent nations.
The causes of the Civil War were many and complex, and have been
debated by historians for decades. This section describes some of the growing
cultural and economic differences between the North and the South in the
decade before the outbreak of war.
Historians and the Civil War
Some historians have suggested that the United States could have avoided the
Civil War. If Americans had elected better leaders and established stronger political institutions at a national level, they believe, extremists on both sides would
never have been able to force the nation into war. This view is based on the
belief that Americans of the mid-1800s had many cultural and political traditions in common and therefore could have settled their differences. Whether in
Alabama, Oregon, Indiana, or Massachusetts, according to this belief,
Americans supported democracy, free enterprise, and social equality.
More recently, other historians have rejected this idea that American society
was similar everywhere. These historians tend to emphasize the differences
between the regions, racial groups, and social classes of the North and the
South. Although these historians do not claim that the events of the Civil War
had to have happened the way they did, they do believe that some kind of
major conflict was bound to occur.
The Case Against Slavery
During the early 1800s, many Americans observed sharp contrasts
between the North and the South. They said that the two great sections amounted to distinct nations within the United States. The key
difference between the North and the South, and the difference to
which all other conflicts were connected, was slavery.
ACTIVITY
Connecting with
Geography
Call students’ attention to the argument
of some historians that the Civil War
resulted from racial, social, and cultural
differences in the mid-1800s. Have students speculate on geographical and
technological factors that would allow
such distinct differences to exist within a
nation. Then have each student compile
a list of factors in modern America that
minimize regional differences and produce a more uniform culture and society.
Call on students to share their lists with
the class. Discuss the influence of some
of the listed items. (Verbal/Linguistic;
Logical/Mathematical)
346 • Chapter 10 Section 1
Southern States
• Diverse, fast-growing
population
• High concentration
of railroads
•
MAIN IDEA
BELLRINGER
Warm-Up Activity Ask students to
discuss what they know about differences among regions in the United
States today. What effect might these
differences have on the nation as a
whole today?
Northern States
• What were some important differences
between the North and the South?
346
Chapter 10 • The Coming of the Civil War
RESOURCE DIRECTORY
Teaching Resources
Learning Styles Lesson Plans booklet, p. 22
Guided Reading and Review booklet, p. 41
Technology
Section Reading Support Transparencies
Guided Reading Audiotapes (English/Spanish),
Ch. 10
Student Edition on Audio CD, Ch. 10
Sounds of an Era Audio CD Walt Whitman on
America (time: 45 seconds)
Color Transparencies American Diversity, G8
Exploring Primary Sources in U.S. History
CD-ROM Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher
Stowe
Prentice Hall Presentation Pro CD-ROM, Ch. 10
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By the 1850s, many white Northerners had come to believe that slavery
violated the basic principles of both the United States and the Christian religion.
Most white opponents of slavery were members of the democratic Protestant
faiths that had been on the rise since the Second Great Awakening. The members of these faiths believed that all humans, free or enslaved, had the right to
choose their own destiny and to follow God’s laws.
Slavery’s white opponents did not necessarily believe that blacks and whites
were equal. Many, in fact, were deeply prejudiced against African Americans.
(A prejudice is an unreasonable, usually unfavorable opinion of another group
that is not based on fact.) Nevertheless these people believed that slavery was
an evil that could not be tolerated.
READING CHECK
How did the Second Great
Awakening draw people to
abolitionism?
LESSON PLAN
Focus Explain that in the 1850s, differences between the North and the
South increasingly divided the two
regions. Ask what these key differences between the North and the
South were.
Instruct Review the economies of the
North and the South. Ask students to
compare the two regions in terms of
their economic and material differences. Discuss the ways in which slavery divided the North and the South.
Ask why so many Northerners found
slavery morally offensive. Why did
Southerners accuse Northerners of
hypocrisy regarding slavery?
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Without question, the most powerful statement made
during this period about the impact of slavery was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, Stowe’s novel became an instant
bestseller and sold millions of copies in the United States and abroad.
The story is set in the pre–Civil War South. In the novel, a slave named
Eliza Harris escapes from her home on Shelby plantation in Kentucky when her
child is about to be sold. As Eliza heads north, she avoids the hired slave catchers and finds help along the Underground Railroad. Another slave, Uncle Tom,
is “sold down the river” to another owner and is eventually killed by his brutal
master, Simon Legree.
Stowe did not depend only on the sharp contrast between the kind slave
Uncle Tom and his cruel master to make her case against slavery. She also tried
to show that slavery was opposed to beliefs that many Northerners cherished:
the importance of women and the ideal of the family. In the novel, the neat,
orderly world of Uncle Tom’s cabin, formed around his happy family, comes to
a tragic end when Uncle Tom’s owner has to sell him. Eventually Uncle Tom
falls into the hands of the cruel slaveholder, Simon Legree.
By contrast with the saintly Uncle Tom, Simon Legree is everything
Stowe’s audience in the North feared and despised: an unmarried, antiChristian, heavy-drinking bully. Not only does he brutalize the enslaved
women of his plantation, but in the end he beats Uncle Tom to death with a
whip. It was not by accident that Stowe made Legree a Northerner who had
moved to the South. She wanted to show that slavery also could corrupt those
born outside the system.
To contrast these stark images of the immoral
effects of slavery, Stowe wrote powerful scenes in
which northern women influence their husbands
to do what is right. For example, in one scene set
in a house in Ohio, a wife persuades her husband,
a senator, to permit some escaped slaves to continue their journey to Canada. When her husband
tries to argue with her, she replies:
“
Assess/Reteach In light of the
growing tensions and seemingly insoluble differences, do students think
secession and war were fast becoming
inevitable?
V I E W I N G H I S T O R Y Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s
Cabin offered antislavery forces
new encouragement in resisting
the slavery system. Distinguishing
Fact From Opinion Identify two
ways that the drawing adds drama
to Eliza’s escape from slavery.
”
READING CHECK
Her husband points out that to help
escaped slaves would involve breaking the law.
The wife replies:
Chapter 10 • Section 1
Less Proficient Readers
Ask students to find and list evidence as they
read the section supporting the belief that the
differences between the North and the South
were so great that these two regions were really
distinct nations within the United States.
Connecting with
Culture
In 1852 the publication of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin ignited the antislavery movement.
The author, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
created one character who evoked
sympathy and a contrasting, despicable
character. To help students understand
both sides of the slavery issue, divide
the class into small groups. Ask each
group to develop a theme for a book
and create two main characters who
would evoke the reader’s sympathies
toward the South. (Verbal/Linguistic)
I don’t know anything about politics, but I can
read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed
the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the
desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.
CUSTOMIZE FOR ...
ACTIVITY
347
The members of the faiths of the
Second Great Awakening believed
that all humans, regardless of their
race, had the right to freedom.
CAPTION ANSWERS
Viewing History Sample answers: the
way she looks over her shoulder while
she runs; the baby she carries in her
arms; the danger of falling through the
ice into the river.
Chapter 10 Section 1 •
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“
ACTIVITY
Student Portfolio
You may wish to have students add
the following to their portfolios: Ask
students to write two book reviews of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one by a northern
reader and one by a southern reader.
The southern review should justify
slavery and describe outrage at selfrighteous Northerners. The northern
review should describe why slavery
was wrong and discuss why it would
be the ruin of the United States.
(Verbal/Linguistic)
BACKGROUND
Interdisciplinary
Although ostensibly a work of fiction,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was based on various slave narratives, in particular that
of Henry Bibb, published in 1849. Stowe’s
novel was first serialized in the National
Era, an abolitionist newspaper. Appearing
in book form in 1852, it sold more than
10,000 copies in the first few weeks and
300,000 in its first year, a level of success completely unexpected from a previously unknown author. The work was
eventually translated into at least 23 languages and sold some 7 million copies
worldwide. However, in the absence of
international copyright agreements in
the 1800s, Stowe realized no income
from many of these sales. Uncle Tom’s
Cabin was also adapted into a successful stage play—again without Stowe’s
consent—which was frequently performed and remained popular with audiences into the early twentieth century.
“If I could use my pen
as you can, I would
write something that
would make this whole
nation feel what an
accursed thing slavery
is,” wrote Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s
Harriet Beecher
sister. Born in ConStowe
necticut in 1811 and
1811–1896
part of the well-known
Beecher family, Stowe would become
one of the best-known writers of the
antislavery movement. Stowe found herself on the front lines of the slavery
debate after she moved to Cincinnati,
Ohio in 1832. Although Ohio was a free
state, Stowe’s new home was located
just across the Ohio River from the
slave state of Kentucky. She drew on
her encounters with fugitive slaves and
her visits to the South to write Uncle
Tom’s Cabin. After her initial success,
Stowe wrote novels, essays, and poetry
on diverse themes that included slavery,
literature, and religion. She returned to
Connecticut during the Civil War and
lived in Hartford until her death in 1896.
READING CHECK
In what ways did Southerners
criticize labor practices in the
North?
“
Impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin Although a work of fiction, Uncle
Tom’s Cabin had as powerful an effect in Stowe’s time as Thomas
Paine’s Common Sense had in his. According to a family story, when
Stowe met President Lincoln during the Civil War he said, “So this is
the little lady who made this big war?”
Stowe’s novel presented a vivid picture of slavery in the South that
northern readers found believable, even if it was in fact exaggerated.
As they read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, many Northerners became convinced
that slavery would be the ruin of the United States. They worried
about the impact of slavery not just on African Americans, but on
whites and American society in general. Of this they were sure: they
would never allow the United States to become a land of Simon Legrees.
Southern Views on Slavery
You, with the command over labor which your capital gives you, are a
slave owner—a master, without the obligations of a master. They, who
work for you, who create your income, are slaves, without the rights of
slaves. Slaves without a master!
”
—George Fitzhugh
Outraged by antislavery Northerners who pretended to be better than
Southerners, Fitzhugh exclaimed:
READING CHECK
What is falsely called Free Society, is a very recent invention. It proposes to make the weak, ignorant and poor, free, by turning them
loose in a world owned exclusively by the few . . . to get a living.
”
—George Fitzhugh
348
Chapter 10 • The Coming of the Civil War
RESOURCE DIRECTORY
Teaching Resources
Biography, Literature, and Comparing Primary
Sources booklet (Literature) An Abolitionist
Bestseller, pp. 51–52
Technology
Sounds of an Era Audio CD “Fourth of July
Speech,” Frederick Douglass (time: one
minute, 30 seconds)
348 • Chapter 10 Section 1
”
Southern intellectuals and politicians reacted very differently to Uncle
Tom’s Cabin. To them, Stowe’s bestseller was a book of insulting lies.
While they admitted that some masters did treat enslaved people badly,
they argued that few were as cruel as Simon Legree. Some white Southerners had their own exaggerated view of slavery, in which plantation
households were like large and happy families.
Southerners did more than protest northern criticism. Many spoke
out to defend slavery and attack the evils they saw in the North. They
claimed that most planters took a personal interest in the well-being of
the enslaved people who worked for them and provided them with the
basic necessities of life. Northern industrialists, they argued, took no
personal responsibility for their workers because they had no strong connection to them. Northerners could easily replace their workers and
therefore, Southerners believed, northern employers did not care if they
paid workers enough to buy decent food, clothing, and shelter. Most Southerners
believed that northern business owners mistreated their workers because they
were motivated solely by profit.
Perhaps the most direct statement of this point of view appeared in a book
by George Fitzhugh published in 1857, titled Cannibals All! Attacking northern industrialists, whom he saw as no better than cannibals, Fitzhugh wrote:
“
Southerners felt that northern
industrialists had little or no interest in their employees as humans,
mistreated them, and did not pay
them well. They also felt that
northern industrialists were motivated solely by profit since workers were easily replaceable.
Obeying God never brings on public evils. I know it can’t. It’s always
safest, all round, to do as He bids us.
Literature Activity
A Poem In Defense of Slavery, found on
TeacherExpress™, illustrates some of the arguments that were used in defense of slavery.
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ACTIVITY
Connecting with
Citizenship
Many white Southerners argued that they represented the true spirit of the
American Revolution. After all, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and
many other Revolutionary leaders had owned slaves. These Southerners
believed that their households possessed an order, a grace, and a sense of liberty
that Northerners could not begin to understand. On one point almost all
Southerners agreed: they were not about to let Northerners, whom they saw as
arrogant and self-righteous, tell them how to live.
Differences Between the North and the South
V I E W I N G H I S T O R Y Southern
proslavery writers promoted the
myth that slavery “raised Africans
from savagery” and “civilized”
them. These before-and-after
pictures are from a pamphlet
titled Bible Defence of Slavery.
Recognizing Bias What other
claims did proslavery activists
make to justify slavery?
The differences between the North and the South were not simply a product of
exaggerated fiction and propaganda. Hard facts illustrate how differently the
two regions had developed since 1790. Each year the North was becoming ever
more urban and industrialized than the South. Its population, already more
than twice as large as the South’s, was becoming even larger and more diverse
as Irish and German immigrants crowded into northern cities. By 1860, nine of
the country’s ten largest cities were located in the North.
Trains and Trade
Like immigration, new technology had a heavier impact on
the North than on the South. One critical innovation was the railroad. Railroads
dramatically reduced the cost and time needed to ship goods from factory or farm
to the marketplace. The most efficient form of transportation the world had yet
known, railroads made canals obsolete, or outdated, in a matter of years.
By 1840, approximately 3,000 miles of track had been laid in the United
States. African American and Irish immigrant workers added another 5,000
miles during the 1840s. It was in the 1850s, however, that the railroads truly
came into their own. More than 20,000 miles of track were laid in that decade.
During this railroad boom, remote places suddenly became centers of
bustling trade. Railroads took advantage of Chicago’s central location to transport goods such as corn and wheat between the east and the west. As a result,
Chicago grew from a small trading village to an important regional center in
only a few years.
The railroads, however, had a positive effect primarily in the North. In 1860,
70 percent of the railroad track in the United States were in the North. In the
1850s, the South attempted to catch up with the North in terms of transportation.
The total length of railroad tracks in the South doubled, and then doubled again
in that decade as railroads invested in new links. Railroads contributed to the
Have students read the selections by George
Fitzhugh on the previous page and then complete
the sentence below.
By reading the quotes from George Fitzhugh, you can
infer that—
A he supports slavery.
B he thinks northern factory owners who
complain about slavery are hypocrites.
C he is against slavery in all forms.
D he thinks northern factory owners could
learn a few things from southern slave
owners.
BACKGROUND
Northern Slavery
Despite the antislavery sentiments of
many Northerners, slavery survived in
the North well into the 1800s. This was
because several northern states ended
slavery through gradual emancipation
laws. Connecticut, for example, emancipated all slaves born after March 1,
1784, when they reached age 21. Slaves
born before that date did not have to
be freed. New York enacted a similar
law in 1799, as did New Jersey in 1804.
However, dissatisfied with the pace of
gradual emancipation, the New York
legislature in 1817 granted freedom to
all slaves in the state on July 4, 1827.
Slavery died more slowly in New Jersey,
where some 2,200 African Americans
remained slaves in 1830—a few of
whom were still enslaved when the
Civil War began.
BACKGROUND
Recent Scholarship
Chapter 10 • Section 1
TEST PREPARATION
Point out to students that by the 1850s,
many white Northerners had come to
believe that slavery violated the basic
principles of the United States. Invite
students to identify what they think
these “basic principles” might have
been, or are. List responses on the
chalkboard. Then ask them which of
the principles the institution of slavery
violated, and how. (Verbal/Linguistic)
349
To learn more about the tensions
between the North and the South
that led to war, see The Valley of
the Shadow: Two Communities in the
American Civil War—The Eve of War,
by Edward L. Ayers and Anne S. Rubin.
This book compares the lifestyles and
cultures of one northern and one southern county just prior to the outbreak of
hostilities. Included with the book are
a CD and Web links for further study.
CAPTION ANSWERS
Viewing History Southern whites
viewed slavery as a “civilizing” and
paternal influence for enslaved workers. This argument held that slaves
received better care from their masters
than did northern industrial workers.
Southerners also felt that northern
abolitionists were weighing in on a
matter that need not concern them.
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Economic Advantages of the North and South
Section
1
Northern States
Assessment
Reading Comprehension
1. Northerners believed Southerners
were morally in the wrong because
slavery violated the basic principles
of the country and of Christianity.
Southerners felt that northern industrialists took no responsibility for
workers, paid them meager wages,
and were motivated solely by profit.
2. The prejudice that African Americans
were inferior.
3. The North was more urban and
industrial, had more advanced transportation, and had more immigrants.
The South remained agricultural and
dependent upon slave labor.
Critical Thinking and Writing
4. Its portrayal of slavery was very dramatic. It showed that slavery was
in conflict with the beliefs of many
Americans. Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped
convince many Northerners that
slavery would be the ruin of the U.S.
5. Sample answer: View 1: Americans
were similar in their belief in democracy and could have settled their differences. (Students may infer that a
shared goal will unite people despite
some differences.) View 2: Americans
were not similar. Differences in
geography, racial groups, and social
class made a major conflict inevitable.
(Students may infer that strong differences among people led to conflicts, despite some common goals.)
Agriculture
Corn (bushels)
Wheat (bushels)
Oats (bushels)
Cotton (bales)
Tobacco (pounds)
Rice (pounds)
√ 446 million
√ 132 million
√ 150 million
Southern States
280 million
31 million
20 million
√ 5 million
199 million
√ 187 million
growth of many southern cities, such as Atlanta,
Georgia. Still, in 1860 the southern railroad network
was much less developed than railroad networks in
New England or the Midwest. Southern planters and
farmers were more likely to transport their crops by
water than by rail.
The Telegraph Like the railroad, the telegraph
magnified the differences between the North and the
South. This historic advance in communication,
50 thousand
patented by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1844, allowed
Finance
people to send messages over wires by using a code of
√ $207 million
$47 million
Bank Deposits
short and long pulses of electricity. A combination of
√ $56 million
$27 million
Specie
“dots” and “dashes” represented each letter of the
Livestock
alphabet. Because telegraph wires were strung along
√ 4.2 million
1.7 million
Horses
the ever-growing network of railroad tracks, the com300 thousand
√ 800 thousand
Donkeys and Mules
munications revolution in the North advanced more
√ 5.7 million
2.7 million
Milk Cows
quickly than in the South.
6.6 million
√ 7 million
Beef Cattle
Together, railroads and improved communica√ 16 million
5 million
Sheep
tions nourished the booming industries of the North.
√
15.5
million
16.3
million
Swine
In 1860, the North had 110,000 factories, comManufacturing
pared to 20,000 in the South; it produced over $1.6
20.6 thousand
Number of Factories √ 110.1 thousand
billion worth of goods, compared to the South’s
√ 1.17 million
111 thousand
Number of Workers
$155 million. In fact, in terms of numbers, the
√ $1.62 billion
$155 million
Value of Products
South outranked the North in only two notable
√ 21.5 million
9 million
Population
ways: it had more enslaved people and it produced
more cotton. As the chart illustrates, the South also
√ 21.7 thousand miles
9 thousand miles
Railroad Mileage
grew more rice and matched or exceeded the North
SOURCE: The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War
in many categories of livestock.
Certainly, the North and the South in 1860 had
I N T E R P R E T I N G C H A R T S The
much in common. They both cherished their democratic traditions, for example.
economic contrasts between the
Nevertheless, the two regions held competing visions of what American society
North and the South were sharp.
should become. As economic and political power shifted in favor of the North,
Analyzing Information Summarize
people in the South worried that they would lose their voice in the debate.
the types of advantages held by
4 thousand
√ 229 million
the North and the South.
1
Assessment
READING
COMPREHENSION
CRITICAL THINKING
AND WRITING
1. How did slavery affect the views
that Northerners and Southerners
had of each other?
4. Recognizing Cause and Effect Why
was Uncle Tom’s Cabin successful
in changing many people’s attitudes
toward slavery?
2. What prejudice was common to
most whites in all parts of the
country?
3. How did the economic trends that
occurred in the 1800s affect the
North and the South differently?
5. Writing an Opinion Write a short
paragraph summarizing the two
main views held by historians on the
issue of whether the Civil War could
have been avoided.
PHSchool.com
An activity on census data in
the 1850s and 1860s
PHSchool.com
mrd-4101
For:
Visit:
Web Code:
PHSchool.com
Typing the Web Code when prompted
will bring students directly to detailed
instructions for this activity.
350
Chapter 10 • The Coming of the Civil War
RESOURCE DIRECTORY
CAPTION ANSWERS
Interpreting Charts The North held
advantages in finance, industry, population, and railroads; the South had
advantages only in certain areas of
agriculture and livestock.
350 • Chapter 10 Section 1
Teaching Resources
Units 3/4 booklet
• Section 1 Quiz, p. 41
Guide to the Essentials
• Section 1 Summary, p. 52
Learning with Documents booklet (Visual
Learning Activity) The Annexation of Texas,
p. 49