The Antebellum era was the duration in the history of the Southern part of the United States between the late eighteenth century and the commencement of the Civil war in America in the year1861 1 . This duration was characterized by the growth of the economy of this Southern part due to the slavery that was occurring hence offering slave labour to the farming plantations. This era was characterized by the growth of abolition and the subsequent polarization of the United States between supporters and abolitionists of the slave trade. The Northern states were commonly referred to as the “Union States” while the Southern States were referred to as the “Confederate States of America”.
The different economic development paths that were taken in the development of the South and North contributed to the animosity between these regions leading to the civil war. The major economic activity that the United States was involved in during the antebellum era was agriculture. Most of the people in America lived in the rural areas. However, the industrial revolution was slowly creeping in. Even though industries were both in the South and North, the majority of the manufacturing was taking place in the north. In the North, there was a lot of skilled manpower. Labour was expensive and the laborers were active and allowed to move around. The South, on the other hand, used the African American slaves as laborers. Since the planters in the south used slave labour, they saved on costs and the money saved was used to purchase manufactured goods from the North and luxuries from England. Thus, South America cotton industry was the engine of the economy of the country. This was a cause of the difference between the North and south since the North did not want competition from the South.
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Tariffs also caused the division between the North and the South. This was the tax that was imposed on imported goods. During this antebellum period, any time that the government wanted to raise the tariffs, the congressmen from the South could oppose the move while those from the North supported it. Southerners wanted the tariffs to remain low since they maintained the law cost of the imported goods which favoured the economy of the South 2 . On the other hand, the Northerners wanted the tariffs to be raised so that the imported goods could be expensive. This was a major cause of division between the Northerners and Southerners.
Another event that led to the division was legislation about slavery. The Southern whites considered owning African American slaves as their right. These slaves provided labour in their cotton farms which were the core of the economy. Southern representatives and senators pushed hard so that slavery could be legalized however their colleagues from the North opposed such amendments since it could give the southerners and economic benefit over them. The Southerners wanted to extend slavery into the new territories. This made the Southern whites to feel that their rights were being undermined.
The development of the underground railway was also a cause of division between the Northerners and the Southerners. Some abolitionists from the north helped the African American slaves to run away using the railroad. When the South realized this, they sent lawmen to retrieve the slaves but these men were at times beaten and attacked by mobs of abolitionists. To those States that were holding slaves, this showed that the Northerners wanted to select parts of the constitution which they could enforce while assuming that the Southerners would honour the whole constitution. Harriet Tubman was the most famous activist on the railroad that was underground. This really annoyed the Southerners leading to a further division between the North and South.
The Missouri compromise was also an event that led to this division. Territories that had been gained from the war between the United States and Mexico heightened the debate about slavery. Abolitionists tried so hard to ensure that slavery was declared illegal in those States 3 . The Southerners, who were advocates of slavery, feared that if the institutions of slavery were prohibited in the newly acquired territories, then the holding of slaves could diminish possibly to a level of becoming outlawed in all states in the United States.
In the year 1858 Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held debates about slavery in the United States in the Senate. Lincoln was against the spread of slave trade in the new states while Douglas wanted the slave trade to be spread to the new territories. In the year 1860, elections were carried out and Abraham Lincoln won which meant that no spread of the slave trade. The “Free States” were eighteen and the “Slave States” were fifteen. The South became upset and perceived Lincoln as an abolitionist. The first state to break away from the union was North Carolina.
In the year 1859, a band of followers led by Brown seized the arsenal of the federal government at Harper's Ferry in what people believed was an attempt to give weapons to the slaves. Brown underwent trial for treason. He was found guilty against Virginia and finally hanged. The South viewed his actions of arming the slaves as that of a mad a fanatic. However, the Northerners’ abolitions viewed Brown as a martyr. Southerners, thus, came to assume that the North aimed to stage a war against white Southerners. This further led to the division between the North and the South.
The division between the North and the South served as a catalyst of the American Civil war. The prime action that led to the war was when the Fort Sumter was bombarded by the state army of the Confederates, which led to the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the Army of the United States.
Bibliography
Tindall, George Brown, and David E. Shi. America: A narrative history . WW Norton & Company, 2016.
1 Tindall, George Brown, and David E. Shi. America: A narrative history . WW Norton & Company, 2016.
2 Tindall, George Brown, and David E. Shi. America: A narrative history . WW Norton & Company, 2016.
3 Tindall, George Brown, and David E. Shi. America: A narrative history . WW Norton & Company, 2016.
