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?