Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
12/4/17
- Growing cities
- The North was industrialized: factories, telegraph, etc. (this is a huge reason why the North
- The Plantation Legend was a stereotype invented by popular writers in the north that described
the South as a land of aristocratic planters, beautiful southern belles, poor white trash, faithful
- The south was wildly diverse and complex opposite of the Plantation Legend
o Many small slave owners, few large ones Average holding of slaves was 4-6, most had
fewer than 6
o Diversity among slave owners 1/10th were women, many were workers, some free
- Enormous wealth richer than any country in the world, except for England
- However, it impeded industry & development, high debts, soil exhaustion, little innovation
Southern Nationalism promoted economic self-sufficiency
o South argued that Northern factory workers were “slaves without masters”
- Belief that the North is too democratic, belief that the North was a “strange and distant land”
o Railroads quadrupled
o More exports
o With the annexation of Latin America, Cuba, Caribbean, it was believed that
o White miners displeased because they couldn’t compete with slave labor
o California applied for statehood and outlawed slavery and indentured servitude,
- The climate and geography did not allow for slave labor to prosper
- But Southerners knew that slavery was on the decline, and they were “surrounded” by free
states
- Compromise of 1850
o Expansion of slavery was debated; Congress had the ability to abolish slavery
Southerners did not agree with congress having this much power
o Final Comprise:
allowed the territorial legislatures of New Mexico and Utah to settle question of
slavery,
Set federal law for the return of runaway slaves. (Fugitive Slave Law of 1793),
Gave Texas $10 million to abandon claims to territory in New Mexico east of the
Rio Grande