Preview

Antebellum Period

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
532 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Antebellum Period
Aisha Rapant DBQ Essay The period of time between 1800 and 1860 contains contrasts depending on place in America. Between the North and South lay differences in economic and political factors. This Antebellum period was one that caused disagreements over how best to help the economy, the extension of slavery, and relationship between states and the federal government. These ideas were the framework for the cause of the Civil War. This essay will address the numerous variances between the North and Confederate South before the war. Economy is a very important factor in a nation which is a system that consists of the production, distribution or trade, and consumption of goods and services. The north was primarily based on industry and factories. Also, the circulation of these goods was supported by railroads that connected to the Midwest (Doc. 1), a producer of agriculture of food. The South was not, but relied on cheap labor and would collapse without slaves according to Thomas R. Dew (Doc. 2b). The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney highly encouraged slavery. Also, in the North, proposals for the 1850 Compromise caused the support of prohibition of slave trade in the District of Columbia. However, in the South trade was supported. Congress had no power to interfere with the trading of slaves and favored the idea that escaped slaves had to be returned to their owner (Doc. 5). This was the fugitive slave act which applied to all citizens. The economies of the two Parts of America had different opinions. One of the greatest differences between the North and South were the laws regarding states’ rights. The Southern states typically felt that they should hold supremacy over the federal government. This is similar to the reason why the Articles of Confederation didn’t work. Anytime the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The antebellum period refers to the period of time after the War of 1812 and before the start of the Civil War. The friction between the South and the North began to gradually increase as the abolitionists were rising while in the South, the demand for slaves increased. With the Industrial Revolution, the North’s economy centered upon manufacturing while the South’s economy relied on plantations due to the cotton…

    • 70 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This book focuses on the of number southern black and white who opposed the confedecy. He documented in The Road to Disunion, that anti-Confederates got strength from the weakness of slavery in the Border South, while slavery stunted population growth. The author argues that the varying support of the upper and lower South contributed to the fall of the Confederacy placing most of the blame on anti confederalist. He states that anti-Confederate whites undermined the Confederacy by remaining outside the nation while slaves unified form within and enlisted into the Union Army. Both groups guaranteed that the Union would have more men for the army which cause the Confederacy to lose because anti-Confederates waged war against Confederate southerners. That author also discusses the neutrality of the border slave states that made the Confederate war effort vulnerable. Losing nearly half of the slave states neutrality and the support for the Union army's invasion damaged the geography and population that the Confederacy could use for its defense.…

    • 232 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the Civil War came to an end, the South experienced an era of changes. One of the most popular speeches, explaining how the post-war South had grown out of its old customs and made progress, was Henry Grady’s The New South. This document is an important historical speech when comparing examinations of how life was for Southerners in the years following the Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877. Although this speech is very motivational, it differs from the reality of how the South was managing during this time period. Grady’s vision seemed almost too good to be true when covering the stance of the economy, the termination of slavery, and the attitudes of Confederate soldiers after the war.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I. Introduction A. Beginning of Civil War: Reasons, Fort Sumter, Confederate capital B. First Battle of Bull Run C. Preparing for War D. War in the West E. War in the East F. The South Attacks II. Beginning of Civil War: A. Causes leading up to the Civil War – Freedom Rights B. Attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dbq 1850's

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Constitution can be interpreted in many different ways, which leads to sectional discord and tension. For many reasons, the South evidently did not…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The period of the Civil War and Reconstruction, lasting from 1860-1877, the nation underwent a multitude of powerful changes, physically and emotionally. A school of thought today exists that, “The North won the war, bur the South won reconstruction.” What does this mean exactly? When the Union defeated the Confederacy, Northerners, freemen, and existing slaves imagined a political and social revolution in which their dreams of abolition and government power would manifest itself. However, the civil rights movement within the constitution, specifically the additions of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, brought to life the desires of the Union, but in the South such hostility and racism still existed that there was…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The South v. South

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Cited: 1- Freehling, William. The south vs. the south How Anti-confederate Southerners Shaped The Course Of The Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001.…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2. What do you know about slavery in the antebellum United States, and how does it compare to slavery as discussed in "Oroonoko?" Use examples from the text to make your comparisons.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The period I chose to focus on was the Antebellum Period of 1789-1812. From this period the three things I chose to touch upon were the Cotton Gin, Early Industrialization and the Rise in Manufacturing in the North, and the canal system during the Antebellum Period in American history. This period is considered to be the period right before the civil war and after the War of 1812. It was described by the rise of abolition and the gradual polarization of the country between abolitionists and supporters of slavery. During this time, the country’s economy began shifting in the south; a cotton boom made plantations the center of the economy. While in the north, manufacturing the Industrial Revolution began. The reinforcement and the actions of…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The period after the Civil war has always been referred to as the reconstruction era. The reconstruction era can be defined from two perspectives. First, it covers the story of the United States between the periods of 1865 to 1877. The second part revolved around the transformation of the United States in 1863 to 1877 through the directive of the congress. An era was full of so much pain and endless questions. It is argued in different quarters that although the war was over reconstruction was still a conflict. It was a fighting propagated by radical northerners. They were after punishing the southerners who were adamant on change of their way of life. The paper looks at reconstruction from these two perspectives.…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Antebellum Period

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Women feared pregnancy and birth during the Antebellum era, contrary to the belief women hold in the twenty-first century. The physicians in the Antebellum South knew little regarding female reproductive health, and their ignorance resulted in many complications: puerperal fever, inability to breastfeed, and prolapse uterus. The fear was not only caused by after birth plights; slaveowners disregarded pregnancy and birth, heightening the previous fear. Owners forced slaves to work while pregnant and utilized whips on slave women (Sullivan 24, 26). Due to the stress induced by the slave owners, slaves endured a high rate of spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and deaths after birth (Digital History 1). The impotent doctors of the antebellum period…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1800’s there was much turmoil over the debate of slavery and whether it was inhumane or not. Slavery caused the nation to separate into 2 factions; the north, who believe in abolishing slavery and the south who thought that slavery was a “benign institution” as quoted by Ulrich B. Phillips. There is much debate whether slavery was the prominent cause of the Civil War. Contrary to popular belief, slavery was not the ultimate cause of the Civil War; in fact the economic, cultural, and political differences between the North and South played more prominent roles in the instigation of the Civil War and influenced the beginnings of slavery.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Southern Expansion

    • 2166 Words
    • 9 Pages

    In the Old Northwest, “the contemporary name for the region north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachian Mountains” an economy based on foodstuffs with a heavy center in the east focused on the consumption and manufacturing of goods. How did this differ from the southern half of the United States? The economy of the southern states lived by the motto where “Cotton was King.” Furthermore, the South was notable for its soil, climate and labor system, and specifically African-American slaves, as a central part of southern society as well as a critical piece in the southern way of life. It is here we start to see differing ways of life between the northern and southern halves of the country. In relation to the years prior to the Civil War, though, both the north and the south feared the other half’s way of life as a threat. It was southern fear that northern states were gaining an advantage in the number of free states, as well as representation in Congress. Running the numbers, it can be ascertained that out of the twenty-seven states in the Union by 1850, fifteen registered as free states while twelve were slave states. Out of the twenty-seven total states, there were 144 representatives of the northern states, with 82 for the southern states. Numerically we can see how the advantage clearly rests with the northern states in…

    • 2166 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Antebellum America

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The period of time in America before the civil war proved to bring out the specialties in each region. The West brought America true farming and allowed livestock to succeed. The eastern part of America prevailed in industrialization, creating many cities and businesses. The southern part of the United States was the dominated by slavery, plantains, and growing cotton. America had many skills but these talents were not mixed well, and each region had its very own specialty.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Fate of Their Country

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages

    "To locate the most direct causes of the American Civil War," he contends in the preface, "one must look at the actions of governmental officeholders in the decades before that horrific conflict." Professor Michael F Holt needs no introduction among historians. He is single handedly regarded as one of the scholars who is most responsible for the emergence of what some call a neo-revisionist interpretation and outlook about the origins and circumstances that resulted in the Civil War. His ideas which are reflected throughout his books especially “The Fate of their country” emphasize that the reasons which caused The Civil War could have been and should have been averted. Defending this ideology Holt criticizes historians who stand by their argument of “Sectional conflict over slavery and slavery extension caused the Civil War”. Instead he preaches throughout his works that include many influential books including “The Fate of their Country” that, contingent political factors played a very huge and predominant role is stimulations factors causing disunion among the states.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays