The History of the Old South

The History of the Old South

The Old South was a region in America known by its history and culture. The culture of the Old South was from the slave trade, which was the main driving factor of the Old South’s economy. Some of the states in the South were North and South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Georgia, and Maryland. The South depended mainly on agriculture and therefore relied heavily on slave labor (Merritt, 2017). The economy relies heavily on Sugar cane, cotton, and tobacco grown in the South. The heavy dependence on agriculture meant the legalizing of slavery for them to find cheap labor. Most of the slaves had traveled from Europe searching for a better livelihood, and in exchange for their basic needs, they worked as slaves. The society comprised of the wealthy landowners, the elite who owned a few slaves, and the landless whites (Merritt, 2017). The black slaves were the majority by 1790 before the Civil war in 1861.

The Old South was different as compared to other regions in the States. The South had long growing seasons, which comprised of growing cotton and tobacco, which were the main cash crops. The system used in the Old South was plantations, and black slave labor fueled the agricultural economy. The influencing factor of the South’s culture was a religion (Merritt, 2017). Christianity teaching was done by white missionaries who taught the slaves to be subject to their owners.

The antebellum era in the 19^th century ushered in significant reforms in the United States (French, 2017). The great awakening led to the development of reformers who desired to improve the society and make it more like God. The reform movement’s influence was the church, which sought to bring about perfectionism in the community. Some of the reforms were the temperance movement, which sought to reduce the consumption of alcoholic drinks. Temperance was to help restore the societies morality. Improvements in prisons improved the conditions in the asylums and mental health facilities. School reforms helped improve the schools in the system as well as the education available for women. Abolition reforms helped end slavery by advocating for their rights (French, 2017). The abolitionist reforms took the longest time because most of the reformers had differing ideologies on how the slave trade would be ended. These reforms also fought for women’s rights. The women’s rights movement showed that women had an equal right to liberty and property just as men were.

The North depended mainly on small farms because the climate could not favor big plantations. Industries were doing much better as compared to agriculture. By 1860, most of the laborers had settled, and the slave trade had died out. The South had a favorable climate that was warm and had fertile soils. Agriculture was the most significant economic driver, and therefore, they had to buy slaves. In the 1850s, the North supported the reformers and pushed for the slave trade a. The South, on the other handheld, a pro-slavery attitude and wanted an expansion of the slave trade (Delbanco, 2019). The North’s most significant population was democrats, and the South were republicans. The prohibition of the slave trade held the country in a balance concerning slavery. The inability to solve the conflicts and restore the balance resulted in the civil war. Due to the prosperity brought about by slaves, the Southerners were willing to go into battle to defend their source of livelihood. Regional conflicts arose before 1860 due to economic tensions. The land, transportation, and tariff policies further increased the tensions because of the differing opinions.  The North desired to control the expansion of the slave trade in the whole of America, and fighting was the only way to stamp their authority (Delbanco, 2019).

The states making up the South formed a confederacy to fight the North (The Union). The Union had the advantage of having a robust manufacturing industry as compared to the confederate. They had much better war materials and a much larger army. The strategy of the South was mostly defensive because of the size of their military and the failure of Robert E. Lee to properly manage his army (Little, 2019). Individual states with different leaders formed the Confederacy. The leaders of the states had diverse motives, which led to conflicts within the Confederacy. Socially the Confederacy was divided because of the different classes of people. Some of the types were businessmen who owned slaves, and the other was small farm owners. Some of the categories of people in the South had less interest in the war because they had more significant problems, such as taxes (Little, 2019). The Union’s victory was also due to the excellent leadership skills of Abraham Lincoln, who had different tactics of winning the war. He had an administrative system that integrated different skills in the flow of war materials and supplies for the army. The Confederacy lacked backing from other parts of the world, such as Europe, where slave trade abolition had already advanced. The Confederate had a breakdown in its leadership and lost the war even before they lost it physically.