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People and Places in the North and South
Introduction:
More Americans lost their lives in the Civil War than
in any other conflict. How did the United States arrive at a point at which
the South seceded and some families were so fractured that brother fought brother?
A complex series of events led to the Civil War. The lessons in this unit are
designed to help students develop a foundation on which to understand the basic
disagreements between North and South. Through the investigation of primary
source documents —photographs, census information and other archival documents—students
gain an appreciation of everyday life in the North and South, changes occurring
in the lives of ordinary Americans, and some of the major social and economic
issues of the years before the Civil War.
Guiding Questions: What differences
existed between ordinary Americans living in the North and those living in the
South in the years before the Civil War? What important issues are reflected in
the differences between life in the North and the South? What kinds of changes
were taking place in the United States at the time?
Learning Objectives:
After completing the lessons in this unit, students
will be able to: - List three differences
and three similarities between life in the North and the South in the years before
the Civil War.
- Discuss how these differences
contributed to serious disagreements between the North and South.
Instructional Plan:
The Civil War erupted after a long history of compromises
and sectional debates over representation, federalism, tariffs and territories.
Though many of the political differences are beyond the scope of the intermediate
curriculum, students can use their analysis of archival documents to begin to
appreciate the differences between the North and South and the changes afoot
in the United States that contributed to the developing conflict.
Before you begin to teach this unit, review the suggested activities and familiarize
yourself with the websites involved. Select, download and duplicate, as necessary,
any documents you want the class to use.
For the census activity in this lesson, either the teacher or students will
need to keep a calculator at hand.
You may wish to provide students with a copy of the Document
Analysis Worksheet, available through the EDSITEment resource The
Digital Classroom, to guide them as they review the documents in this unit.
The purpose of this lesson is to prepare students with background information
for understanding the causes of the Civil War. You can find information on the
causes
of the Civil War on the Encarta website, accessible through a link from
the EDSITEment resource The
Internet Public Library.
Background for the teacher:
Important Enough to Fight About
By 1860, the differences between the North and South had become so great that
Northerners and Southerners felt as if they belonged to two different countries.
What were some of these differences? Which ones were important enough to fight
about? Explain to students that they are going to study life in the United States
in the years before the Civil War to gain a better understanding of why people
grew willing to fight to defend their way of life.
Many of the documents students will look at reflect the lives of ordinary people,
those who would fill the ranks of the armies and those on the home front supporting
the war effort. Public support for a war comes more easily when those who have
to fight feel they are defending what is important in their own lives. Students
will learn about everyday life before the Civil War in the South and North to
begin to understand which differences were significant.
Guided Discussion Questions:
To set up the idea of a conflict that would cause even friends and relatives
to disagree and fight with each other, encourage discussion of the following:
Can
anyone in the class describe an incident they witnessed or heard as an example
of how any of the following potential conflicts can lead to a serious disagreement?
- What one person
was doing prevented someone else from doing what he or she needed to do.
- One
person was so different from another that neither could understand the other or
that their needs were conflicting.
- Someone
was treating someone else very badly.
People and Places in the North and South
Conflicts arise from differences. In this lesson, students concentrate on
differences as they look at the way people made a living before the Civil War
in two communities, one Northern and one Southern.
Starting in the early 19th Century the United States underwent an industrial revolution.
The work that many people did changed as they moved from farms and small workshops
into larger factories. They tended to buy things in stores, rather than make them
at home or trade with their neighbors. They used machines, and purchased the products
of machines, more than they ever had. Source:
Whole
Cloth
Background for the
teacher:
The EDSITEment resource Valley
of the Shadow provides archival documents for two nearby communities—Franklin
County, Pennsylvania (considered part of the North during the Civil War), and
Augusta County, Virginia (South)—both located in the Shenandoah Valley.
The differences between these communities are probably not as pronounced as they
would be if one were comparing a Massachusetts town with a Mississippi town, but
there are differences that students can compare through primary source documents.
This lesson uses the Valley
of the Shadow's searchable census for 1860. At that time, the total population
of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, was 42,126. The population of Augusta County,
Virginia was 27, 749. To compare statistics equally between the counties, multiply
Franklin County figures by .65 or divide Augusta County figures by .65.
For example, if Franklin County had 100 machinists, a count of 65 machinists in
Augusta would represent an equivalent number of machinists within the community,
adjusting for the population difference.
Student Activities:
If your
class has sufficient access to computers, students can conduct searches on their
own. If not, you can do the analysis on one computer in class and discuss the
results or you can print out search results such as the following:
- Search the population census for
trades and professions such as Machinist, or Doctor.
- Search the population
census for a particular family name, such as Clark.
- Search the manufacturing
census for a capital investment of $10,000 or a type of business, such as a Mill.
(Note: Begin search terms with capital letters. A list of common business types is available here)
- Search the agricultural
census for farms worth $10,000.
- Search the slave
owner census for anyone with more than 25 slaves, for example.
If possible, let students suggest search terms.
Avoid searches that will be too broad - they will return so much data that the
computer will work slowly.
Multiply Franklin figures by .65 to see how
they compare to Augusta County values. How do the adjusted values for the two
counties compare? In what areas did the adjusted values fail to match? What differences
and similarities between the two counties do the students note?
Remind
students that these counties are located in the same valley system. Are students
surprised by the differences between two communities that are geographically close
to each other? (If you wish, have students locate the two communities on a map
to see just how close they are.)
Have students work in groups to discuss
the search results and list any conclusions they draw from the data. Appoint a
spokesperson for each group. Compile a composite list of conclusions as each group
in turn shares one conclusion at a time, until all unique responses have been
listed. If desired, students can use the Venn diagram available for download in pdf format as an aid for sorting out similarities and differences.
What differences existed between the communities? How might these
differences cause conflict between two communities? What advantages or disadvantages
would either community have in supplying a war effort?
For additional
information, if desired: 1860
Census Population by Color and Condition, available from Valley
of the Shadow, gives a breakdown of the total population of both counties.
This census also provides the number of free blacks and slaves, which is useful
for comparative purposes.
Differences in urbanization and industrialization led to
conflicting needs
for the North and South.
Background for the teacher: By 1860, the
North had about two and a half times the population of the South (about 22 million
compared to about 9 million, including the South's 3.5 million slaves) and was
more urban and industrial. Of the top 25 cities by population in 1860, only three
were located in the South: Louisville (ranked #12, with a population of 68,033),
Charleston (#22, population 40,522) and Richmond (#25, population 37,910).
The lesson:
Have students compare the following views of Richmond
and New York City, two important urban areas. Richmond was the third largest city
in the South; it became the capital of the Confederacy. New York was the largest
city in the North.
What differences between the North and South do these
photographs reflect? Which city would be more effective in contributing to a war
effort?
New York, New York
(Note: In 1860, New York County
had a population of 813,660.)
Richmond, Virginia
(Note: The growth of the railroads in the mid-1800s led to Richmond becoming a
commercial and industrial center. Richmond was also one of the most important
slave markets in the United States.)
Assessment:
To culminate this unit, ask students to demonstrate their knowledge
of daily life before the Civil War, with an emphasis on differences between the North
and South. Students with sufficient access to technology can search for additional
documents in the EDSITEment approved resources listed below. Here are some examples
of activities that students may wish to undertake to express what they have learned
through this unit (specific project ideas should always be pre-approved by the
teacher): - Set up a timeline display of
the meaningful documents studied in the unit, with appropriate captions.
- Create a piece of historical fiction set in
the 1850s. For example, students could write letters or journal entries in the
voice of someone living during the period before the Civil War, describing key
elements of their lifestyle. Be sure that both northern and southern views are represented.
- Write
and perform a skit that dramatizes the conflict created by different life styles in the North and South.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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