Pre-Civil War: The North

The Northern mentality had changed and the Southern mentality had stayed the same. The North was a free society that had turned their views to industrialization. They were no longer agriculturally based. The South not only didn't understand the shift but they feared it.

The North had a market revolution. It had turned into a capitalist economy and modernized itself. It had gone from subsistence farming to cash crops to a local market to a world market very quickly. What that meant was that people bought necessities from stores instead of making or growing them themselves. This was a huge change in mentality that the South hadn't caught up to yet. To Northerners, slavery was what was holding them back. And in the North, anyone could work for themselves or in factories. This also includes women, children, and free slaves. Because of this market revolution, the definition of childhood changed as well. Children now became a source of labor and money for families. A family with children meant extra income.

This new mentality made progress. It gave the North riches in knowledge and progress. They were starting to join the rest of Europe by industrializing. But because of all the change, immigrants started pouring in. The Northern cities were then immigrant cities. But this was progress at a major cost to the Northern citizens. They started having the same problem we do today with immigrants. They were taking all the jobs and they were not happy. The railroad was amazing progress for the North. It made travel so much easier and united North America. It was a very positive reaction to industrialization. Although the railroad was good for the North, the South felt very isolated from the rest of the country which is never a good sign.

The Northern technology is also a good thing for the North but not so much for the South. It showed a split in the country that is visible to everyone. Numbers of patents in the North compared to the South shows how the two geological territories have major differences. At this point the war is pretty much eminent.

Although the North seemed like the place to be, most people that worked in the North were not too fond of their job. The factories were bitter sweet. At first the girls that worked there loved it. They would have rather been working than in school. As time went on, their views changed. Work became boring and when the chance came to go back to school, the girls were grateful for it.

Immigrants also felt the same way as the working girls. At first everything was great but as time went on, the excitement wore off. In 1818 a women wrote to someone about how great and amazing her new life was in America. They always had enough money and food. But a man in 1834 wrote a letter saying how miserable he was in the North. The work was very hard and the land was too expensive. After time, immigrants felt the sting of hard labor and little money. Just like they do today in the United States. Northerners were equally if not more unhappy about the immigrants. They were taking the labor and land. Sound familiar?

Pre-Civil War: The South

During the lecture that we watched in class on Pre-Civil War in the South, there were nine pro-slavery arguments explained. Most people believe that slavery is morally wrong and it's interesting to hear a Southern perspective especially since we are from the North. Although I believe slavery is very wrong, the South made very good and very convincing arguments for slavery.

One of the most controversial arguments for slavery is the Old Testament of the Bible. Any time the Bible is brought into and argument it's controversial, especially on something as evil as slavery. The Bible is used to say how ancient the practice of slavery is. It uses religion to say that slavery is ok and how it was used in biblical times. The South even went so far to say the prophets defended slavery. They also quoted the Bible by saying that slaves need to obey their master. The Bible probably didn't mean it in this connotation, but it made a persuasive argument.

Slavery was also argued in a historical aspect by the South. Southerners stated that slavery was crucial to all great civilizations. Their examples were Ancient Rome and Greece. Both of these civilizations were great in their time, but eventually they fell. Although the South knew slavery was bad, they called it a necessary evil. They believed that slavery was needed if their society was going to survive. What they didn't contemplate was that their society was already started and flourishing, it was time for slavery to disappear from their community. Their argument never said that slavery had to be in constant motion for the civilization to survive.

Pro-slavery Southerners had a way of twisting words and ideas. Not only did they twist the meaning of the words in the Bible but also in the ideas of Enlightenment writer John Locke. Locke's ideas of natural rights and equality among all people were twisted to please the minds of Southerners. They proposed that John Locke's idea that everyone was equal was actually that there was inequality among all people. They wanted to support their cause by using a reputable source. In my opinion though, it didn't work. It just made it look like they were pulling things out of thin air to accommodate their guilt.

For the South, slaves were just part of the economy. They were viewed as property not people. The knew and even admitted that slavery was amoral. And yet, they still kept the slave economy strong. James Henry Hammer stated that it was legal for man to own property all over the world and that would never change. So therefore he and most of the South believed that it was legal for slaves to be owned considering, to them, they were only a piece of property.

Slavery was viewed as a necessary evil. Charles Jones, a professor at Yale, believed it was for the good of the slaves and the public for them to be held not emancipated. He made an attempt to make slavery look like it was saving the slaves. Although they didn't have to worry about shelter, food, and troubles of living on their own, they did have to worry about being physically, mentally, and verbally abused on a daily basis. Jones believes that if slaves were not held, they wouldn't survive. People thought slaves were inferior and had to be treated like children. so obviously, to the South, slaves wouldn't survive. When in reality, some slaves may have even been smarter than their owners. Without the necessary evil of slavery, the African race would have never survived.

Another absurd argument made by the Southerners was that slavery was harder on the white man. Slaves were a financial responsibility; I won't argue with that. The white owners of slaves never had to do back-breaking labor like slaves did. They also weren't abused on a daily basis for their entire lives. Slaves never had it easy in their lives. The slave owners did have to provide food and shelter for their slaves, but that was a lot easier than being a slave.

The South saw that the only problem with slavery was the too many people from the North didn't understand that it was natural and the way the world was supposed to be. They thought that even though it was amoral and evil, it was the way it was supposed to be and they just had to deal with it. This is a ridiculous argument to propose. Everyone has the power to change what is wrong. The South didn't want to change their lifestyle because it was working for them, not because that was just the way it was. The way of the world didn't have to be slavery; it could have been changed.

Another argument for slavery is the race card. Africans were seen as being inferior and having the capacity of small child. They have to be watched and governed by able-minded people. Obviously, race doesn't play a factor in the mental capability of a person. Fitzhugh also made an argument that all men are not born equal. He said "some are born with saddles on their backs and others are booted and spurred to ride them." The world shouldn't be viewed like this and it's wrong for Fitzhugh to even say it.

Slavery also completes the utopia of the world, according to the South. Slaves were just put on earth for slave owners to take care of. The purpose of government, in Southern eyes, was to turn slaves into the perfect workers. The perfect owner, perfect slave and worker, and the perfect government makes the perfect Utopian society. The Southerners didn't consider how the slaves were feeling. In no way were their lives even close to utopia. They were miserable and the people of the South disregarded their feelings. Life may have been perfect for free white men, but it was far from perfect for the African slaves.

Many of the arguments presented by the South were persuasive but others were completely ridiculous and seemed like they were just thrown together. I believe that many of these were just stated to satisfy the guilt of Southern slave owners.