The Post War Period
In 1861, the United States experienced the greatest crisis in that time. The crisis was fueled by increased influences of unseen forces which widened the differences between the north and south socially, economically and economically. While the northern had embraced commerce and industrialization, the south’s investment was mainly in agriculture. Following the election of president Abraham Lincoln of republican party in 1860, 11 southern states seceded from the federal union due to disagreements on the policies enacted by the new president, especially on the issue of slavery (Goodale, 2007). This gave rise to sharp differences and translated into the American civil war, claiming the lives of many Americans. Four years later, the southern and northern states still exhibited significant social and cultural differences.
There were significant similarities in the post-civil war era in the southern and northern states. In both areas, the citizens attempted to rebuild their damaged social and economic systems by the civil war. The outcomes of the war had been the loss of many lives of many Americans from both sides and paralyzed many essential institutions from both sides. After the civil war therefore, the president Johnson guided by unionism and belief in state rights gave new directions to guide the reconstruction in both areas (American Battlefield Trust, 2020). Both regions however sought to strengthen their social and cultural ties in an attempt to gain power over the other. Notably, most of the efforts in the reconstruction period aimed at restoring the social organization that had existed before the civil war. The northern governed by the new laws attempted to reindustrialize and offer employment to both whites and blacks. The northerners were still less religious but more educated as compared to their southern counterparts which meant that churches were less invested in but schools were capitalized upon to strengthen the northerners (Goodale, 2007). On the other hand, the southern sought reconstruction by acquiring more farm machinery to use for their agricultural way of life. Additionally, the southerners strengthened the role of the church but few schools since these were relatively less educated compared to the northerners. In both southern and northern states however, the issue of slavery continued attracting major divisions especially since it was regarded as a moral issue. On the same note, each region sought achieving social stability by implementing different rights of the genders. Although a point of commonality, this issue painted a larger divide for the southerners and the northern states (Randall & Donald, 2016).
However, the post war era in both regions constituted significant differences. Reconstruction in the south meant massive upheaval including allowing a large number of slaves from bondage into citizenship (Whitehead Luskey, 2016). There having been many slaves in the southern states and therefore, the post-civil war was marked by upheaval of these slaves into citizens, the army and attempts to rebuild the economy which had been devastated by the armies fighting across the south for many years. In the north, however, there still existed unseen tensions in regard to the treatment of slaves. The states enacted regulations that were purposed to reduce the freedom and political power of the freed slaves by segregation. This was achieved through the separate but equal regulations which promoted the dominance of the whites over the black minorities (Whitehead Luskey, 2016). The African Americans in this areas still offered cheap sources of labor since they had not been totally integrated in the mainstream. On the other hand, the slaves in the southern states were forced to live in small minority communities. After the war, the slave owners did not have day to day control over the slaves but were still opposed to the idea of free labor system. Racial turmoil was more pronounced in the southern states due to their reluctance to set free the slaves working for them in the plantations (American Battlefield Trust, 2020). For the northerners, the post-civil war era meant the opening of opportunities which had been extended by the civil war. The social wellbeing of the northerners was improved by economic acts passed during the war such as the homestead act and the transcontinental railroad which opened the north to new settlers. As such, the northern culture was characterized by extensive immigration and new settlement in the area (Whitehead Luskey, 2016). The war veterans from the north left the armies ready to start new lives and taking advantage of new friends, bonus money and a renewed optimism. The debate about the African American voting rights spurred notable differences in both regions. In the north, these spurred the arising of women suffrage movements such as the Wyoming territory women’s suffrage provision which allowed women to contest for presidency (Goodale, 2007). Women suffrage was however less pronounced in the southern states. By this time, the society was mainly dominated by the males while women could not hold office or own property.
Although reconstruction exhibited strong differences, the efforts used in both the south and the north affected each other in significant ways. The northern armies for instance still occupied the south. Moreover, the northern dominated congress passed legislation in an attempt to restructure the southern society in terms of the civil rights of African Americans (Randall & Donald, 2016). Again, the northern business men attempted to reorganize the southern culture and society by investing in infrastructural construction to support industrialization. There was however heavy intransigence of white southerners, as noted above to accept the consequences of defeat. This led to the implementation of radical reconstruction in an attempt to induce the free labor economic model which was highly opposed in the south.
Although the president succeeded in maintaining the federal union as a unifying force between the south and northern states, there were still major divisive forces in both areas, the biggest of which regarded the differences in constitutional interpretation. On one side, the northerners maintained that the national government possessed absolute power and control over the issues affecting the countries now that the major crisis of slavery had been resolved. Northerners strongly advocated for the perception of America as one nation opposed the idea of America being a collection of many independent countries since this could lead to division (Whitehead Luskey, 2016). On the other hand, most southerners were still in support of the state ideation; that the states should have more power than the federal government. Many southerners felt that the states were supposed to leave the union as freely as they joined it, although the support for this belief had gone down following the civil war. With the northern seemingly having won the civil war, this meant that there were no more slaves to provide cheap labor in the cotton farms which widened the gap existing between the two regions (Ferguson, 2011). The northerners engaged equality rights while southerners were angered that this could adversely affect their major economic activity.
In conclusion, the civil war was fueled by major economic, cultural and social differences existing between the north and the south. After the civil war, each side was engaged in restoring the social order in an interactive manner. However, while this period meant upheaval of many slaves and armies from the south, the northern utilized this to open up networks for more settlements and friendships. There were, however major differences between the two regions due to the difference interpretation of the constitution and the treatment of slaves in the post war period.
References
American Battlefield Trust. (2020). North and South. American Battlefield Trust. Retrieved 19 June 2020, from https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/north-and-south.
Goodale, G. (2007). Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 10(3), 544-546.
Randall, J. G., & Donald, D. (2016). The civil war and reconstruction. Pickle Partners Publishing.
Whitehead Luskey, A. (2016). Reconstruction in the North and South: An Interview with Andrew Slap. The Gettysburg Compiler. Retrieved 19 June 2020, from https://gettysburgcompiler.org/2016/01/11/the-geographical-dichotomy-of-reconstruction-an-interview-with-andrew-slap/.
Ferguson, I. A. (2011). Slavery as a Dividing Force (Doctoral dissertation, Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences).