While the reading certainly addresses slavery as one of the major factors contributing to the American Civil War, it does not oversimplify the complexity of the time period. The article states that there were two other potential causes of sectional rift--overall cultural differences as well as the industrialization of the North versus the stagnant agricultural economy of the South. At the same time, however, there seems to be a suggestion that the two regions, despite their perceived dissimilarities, actually shared many more values than they thought.
When you respond tonight, focus more on the similarities than the dissimilarities of the two regions. What do both of these regions still hold dear? How much does it remind us of the United States today?
After reading this article the first dissimilarity that segregated or "sectionalized" the north from the south is, the south opposed domestic tariffs while the north supported them. The north grew fond of industrialization making it more wealthy, heavily populated, and productivity while the south made no effort to industrialize. A similarity between the north and south is they both agreed in minimizing slavery as a cause of sectional division, but their reasons for doing so were different. Although having a dissimilar interest from an economic standpoint was inevitable, "At bottom, the cultural explanation assumes that people quarrel when they are unlike one another; the economic explanation assumes that no matter how alike they may be, they will quarrel if the advantage of one is the disadvantage of the other." So even if they north and south had more similarities there would still be a struggle between them. It reminds of us of the United States today because like it was said in the end of the article, people react to the "distorted mental image" of a problem instead of reacting to the "actuality" of the problem, and that is still true today
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Portents of a Sectional Rift, the dissimilarities were obvious, as in the South wanted slavery while the North did not. Delving deeper into the passage, it is noticeable that there are some similarities as well. It is inferred that both the North and the South held God and their faith dear. A similarity that was felt nationally was the fear of African Americans, in the South rebelling and in the North, there was the fear that they would take the White man’s job. Both the North and the South understood the importance of a strong economy. Much like the United States today, we still rely somewhat heavily on imports and exports. We have our possession like IPhones made in China because the labor there is cheaper.
ReplyDeleteI think I would like to focus more on the similarities and differences between the two regions in economy. One of the biggest similarities between the South and the North before the Civil War was both regions were capitalistic economy (and I believe this reason was big enough). But capitalistic economy can be shown by different styles. The Southern economy was based on slavery and skill forces that produced staples and trade with other countries. The North industrialized and soon showed a more advance economy than the South, which it began to use machines and factories as the main way to produce productions. Of course slavery was also a big reason that isolated the two regions, however, slavery caused problems in economy and pulled the two regions away from each other because they didn't have any agreement and they kept the different ideas in viewing slavery all the time.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "Portents of Sectional Rifts" the North and South had many dissimilarities such as idea's on slavery versus abolishing it, and on industrialization versus an agricultural economy. In similarities, they had two things in common. one of theses things is that they held their God and faith close to them. Most of their decisions always had religion playing apart of it somewhere. The other similarity is that the North and the South were both afraid of the African Americans. In the South they had Slavery and even in the North abolish slavery but they still discriminated African Americans
ReplyDeleteAfter the reading, It showed the North wasn't as victorious as the average American might thing. The author had a different view of the North than most readings. The North's goal wasn't to abolish slavery right away. but eventually. Although that was the goal of the abolitionists, it wasn't a realistic goal. The emancipation proclamation was more of a promise or statement that the slavery would be eventually ready to be dismissed. The agricultural and industrial views of the abolishment of slavery were clearly different, but many of the views were similar, because clearly there was still discrimination in the North and the South after slavery was abolished.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Portents of a Sectional Rift, the rift between the North and the South was mainly caused by slavery. The South wanted slavery while the North did not., but the North and the South were also similar in their own way. While the North did not want slavery, black (freed) slaves were still segregated and did not have the same right as a white man, but in the south the blacks were still segregated but the only difference is that they had masters. Another reason for rift between the North and the South was that the North wanted to grow in industrialization while the South wanted to keep doing manual labor through the slaves.
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