the North

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the North, region, northern United States, historically identified as the free states that opposed slavery and the Confederacy during the American Civil War. This struggle against slavery and secession obscured the reality that the North was actually four separate and not so similar areas: New England, the Middle Atlantic states, the Old Northwest (East North Central States in federal terms), and the Great Plains (West North Central States). Recognized as these four areas, the North includes Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Of these, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota were not states at the time of the Civil War, and Missouri, though part of the Union, was a slave state; thus, regional lines were, and remain, unclear. Regional distinctions, however, did exist. As early as 1796, Pres. George Washington used the terms North and South, warning against the danger of basing political differences upon geographic lines. The most critical sectional distinction, however, had already been recognized in 1787, when slavery was banned in the Northwest Territory (an area known today as the American Midwest). Soon after the American Revolution, slavery disappeared in all states north of the Mason and Dixon Line, the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The North’s development was characterized by a common system of free labour, commercial vigour, and agricultural diversity. In the 19th century transportation developed markedly along east-west lines; e.g., the Erie Canal opened up the Great Lakes in 1825, and New York City was connected to Chicago by rail in 1852. Thus, both immigration and trade bound northern sections together, creating a remarkable homogeneity of ideology, political and educational institutions, cultural ties, and economic patterns.

By the 1850s the question of the extension of slavery into the western territories was the central issue uniting the North and bringing it into conflict with the South. On the eve of the American Civil War (1861), there were 19 free and 15 slave states, the boundary between them following the Mason and Dixon Line, the Ohio River, and latitude 36°30′ (except for Missouri). The North attained its highest self-consciousness as a region during the war, when its name became synonymous with the Union. Including the four border states that fought with the Union, the North at this time had a population of 22 million, produced 75 percent of the nation’s wealth, and possessed 81 percent of its factories.

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American Civil War: Comparison of North and South

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The North attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to ensure the political enfranchisement and socioeconomic equality of African Americans in the South during the Reconstruction period (1865–77). Meanwhile, the North itself was experiencing an unprecedented period of economic growth as it underwent industrialization. As the 19th century progressed, the North, particularly the Middle Atlantic states and the Great Lakes area of the Midwest, became more and more typified by big cities, big business, and big industrial complexes. Its ample natural resources, excellent inland waterway system, and proliferating railways confirmed the North as the economic hub of the country, while the vast expanse of prairie and plain on both sides of the Mississippi gave the western reaches of the North the agricultural dominance that would make it America’s breadbasket.

This dominance, however, was not without its costs. Immigration brought millions of southern and eastern Europeans to northern cities, swelling their populations and providing a cheap source of industrial labour but also causing problems of housing, health, and education. When this wave of immigration slowed dramatically after 1920, it was replaced in the second half of the 20th century by another wave made up of Southern blacks, Latin Americans, and East Asians. During the late 1950s the South was the initial locus of the civil rights movement, but by the late 1960s and ’70s the inclusion of minorities in the political and economic mainstream of the nation was as much a challenge in the North as in the South.

Continuing heavy industrialization had affected the environment, causing water- and air-pollution problems, while the concentration of African Americans in Northern inner-city ghettos spawned tension and violence and severely affected patterns of housing, education, employment, and public health. These difficulties, coupled with the decay of the North’s industrial base owing to foreign competition and other factors, contributed to further demographic shifts, notably a significant migration of people from the North to southern and western states. In 1939 the North had 70 percent of the country’s manufacturing establishments within its borders. By the late 1970s this figure had fallen to barely more than half. Likewise, the North accounted for 58 percent of the total population of the United States in 1940, but only about 40 percent at the turn of the 21st century. Efforts at renewal and revitalization were undertaken by many Northern cities, with varying effect.