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Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South
Introduction:
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.
Background for the teacher:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South:
During the first half of the 19th century, economic
differences between the regions also increased. By 1860 cotton was the chief
crop of the South, and it represented 57 percent of all U.S. exports. The
profitability of cotton, known as King Cotton, completed the South's dependence
on the plantation system and its essential component, slavery.
The North was by then firmly established as an industrial society. Labor
was needed, but not slave labor.
—Source: "Civil War, American."
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000
“Five years ago Mr. and Mrs. Kirke Boott took up their residence at
Lowell where there was then no building except one or two little hovels,
but last night we went over very extensive cotton manufacturies that have
sprung up since that time, and on every side fresh ones are starting into
life. This State is so very bad for agricultural purposes that they are
driven to manufactures to gain a livelihood?”
—Margaret Hall, writing about
Lowell, Massachusetts
October 13, 1827
Background for the teacher:
If one region's economic needs threaten
another region's needs, conflict can arise. One of the significant developing
differences between the North and South in the years before the Civil War was
their economies. The South was very dependent on cotton. Cotton, which could be
processed in greater quantities after the invention of the cotton gin, depended
on slavery.
In the North, where slavery was illegal, workers had to be
paid. Though conditions were often quite poor for the working class
in the North, the flourishing factory system held great promise for many: employment,
the possibility of advancement, and cheaper goods.
Northerners depended on
the federal government to build the infrastructure—such as roads and railroads—necessary for its developing industries. In a time before income taxes, this
infrastructure could be built only with tax money raised largely through tariffs
on imported goods the South needed, while the North was developing factories for
producing such goods on its own.
By 1860, both the North and the South
were moving toward systems of mass production. In the North, factories were springing
up. In the South, plantations had developed. In surprising ways, these systems
resembled each other in their attempt at mass production. The similarities helped
workers realize the country needed to improve the treatment of its workforce.
The differences must have made Southerners feel it would be quite difficult to
abandon a system on which their entire economy depended.
Student Activity:
1. If possible, give class members an opportunity to view
a map of Population
Engaged in Manufacturing and Trade (a link from the EDSITEment resource, The
Center for the Liberal Arts), on screen or in a color copy. Point out the
differences between the North and South. Counties with the most manufacturing
are indicated in red. Notice that the North is almost completely red. Discuss
the differences between the North and South with students. Help students to recognize
the effect of these differences at the time before the Civil War: People disagree
if they feel prevented from doing what they need to do. People need to make a
living.
2. Lead the class in comparing the rules of management
for a factory and a plantation to model the process of comparing documents. The students can use the worksheet Factory and Plantation Rules Compared, available as a pdf file, to facilitate the gathering and organizing of their data. Lewiston
Mill Rules (factory) and Plantation
Management, De Bow's xiv (February 1853) are available from the EDSITEment
reviewed Whole
Cloth. (Note: Background information on the development of the American factory
system is available in The
First American Cotton Mill Began Operation: December 20, 1790 from The
Library of Congress' America's Library, a link from the EDSITEment reviewed
American Memory.)
For this activity, you may wish to group students in pairs; assign each pair one
or two of the mill rules, and read aloud one of the plantation rules. Ask the
pairs to identify any of their rules that are similar to the plantation rules
as you read them.
After going through all the rules, discuss the similarities and differences between
the factory and plantation systems' treatment of the workforce. Hypothesize about
the design of the rules. Why were they deemed necessary or desirable?
3. If desired, the students can now work in small groups to conduct a similar
analysis with the following sets of documents:
Compare the physical set-up of factory and plantation using the following documents:
Compare the following songs of protest:
- Factory (North):
- 1836 Song Lyrics Sung by Protesting Workers at
Lowell:
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty,
That I cannot be a slave.
Source: Liberty
Rhetoric and Nineteenth Century Women, a link from the EDSITEment
resource History
Matters
- Plantation (South):
- Go Down Moses (traditional spiritual):
- When Israel was
in Egypt's Land:
Let my people go.
Oppress'd so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go
- Refrain:
Go down Moses
'way down in Egypt's land
Tell ol' Pharaoh,
Let my peoples go.
- Thus saith the Lord,
bold Moses said:
Let my people go.
If not I'll smite your firstborn dead,
Let my people go.:
- O let us all from
bondage flee;
Let my people go.
And let us all in Christ be free!
Let my people go.
Compare workers and machines:
Assessment:
To culminate this unit, ask students to demonstrate their knowledge
of working 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 working during the period before the Civil War, describing key
elements of their workday.
- Write
and perform skits based on some of the documents studied that dramatize the working conditions in the North, and slave labor in the South.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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