Textile Mills, Factories, and Industries Were Scattered

Textile mills, factories, and industries were scattered across the North.

These industries made products from raw materials, called manufacturing. These manufactured goods would then be taken to markets for sale. The North liked tariffs, a tax on foreign goods, because these taxes would make imported goods more expensive, and people would buy Northern-made items. The use of tariffs protected the factory owners and workers from losing their jobs.

The South's economy was based on farming or agriculture. Large farms, called plantations, used slave labor to harvest abundant amounts of crops to sell. These were called cash crops and included such things as tobacco, cotton, and rice. The South disliked tariffs because most of their goods were bought from foreign countries and cost more because of the taxes.

The North and South made their money in very different ways and wished to preserve their unique way of life. The Northern people saw progress in terms of industry and transportation, while the Southerners wanted to maintain their antebellum system of slavery and plantations. The South did not care about the technology, which was changing the North, so they continued to put their money into land and slaves, while Northerners invested in factories and railroads. Therefore, manufacturing and industry continued in the North, while farming went on in the South.

However, if the South had not succeeded when Abraham Lincoln became president in 1960, then the war might have been avoided all together. In order for them to stay a part of the union, they would have had to abided by the rules that the North had placed on them to make the Nation a whole, instead of separating. Not wanting to abide by their rules, however, is the main reason for the separation.

If the South had given up the slavery and other issues they were arguing about, then the North could have come in and reconstructed the south, and placed factories and industries throughout the South to help them rebound from their loss of slaves in the plantations. In addition, the slaves would have probably stayed around and helped on the farms, even after they were freed, because it was the life they knew.

The South would have definitely gone through recession and very tough times, but they would have eventually been able to get back on track with the help of the North. They were not looking at the North as wanting to help, however. Instead, they were looking at the North as wanting to put their ways of thinking, believing and working into the South, and take over. The people of the South did not want that, nor did they want to give up their slaves. They had become reliable on the slave to do the work for them, and it was hard to think of not having them to help in the fields.