USA's Division into Two Different Societies by the Civil War
The traditional interpretation of the American Civil War holds that
the states of North America had become divided into two camps
representing two very different societies by the 1860's. These
societies had little common ground, with different economic and social
infrastructures and were divided by the issue of slavery. This
argument claims, therefore, that slave states and free states were
bound to come into conflict since the north and the south were
'divided across a fault line delineated by the institution of slavery'[1].
The conflict indeed became a Civil War in 1861, fought between two
separate geographical regions, with most northerners on the side of
the Union and most southerners on the side of the Confederacy. Even in
some cases, such as in Kentucky and Missouri, the war divided families
and brother fought against brother. However, some historians have
challenged this traditional interpretation of the Civil War. For
example, recent revisionist historians such as Susan-Mary Grant claim
that historians writing on the Civil War in the past often exaggerated
the state of the Union and overemphasise how weak it was before the
outbreak of war. She claims that although the north and the south had
their differences, the union was not as divided as previous historians
made it out to be and, over time, the image of the Civil War has been
distorted to overemphasise the differences between the two sides.
The popular view of the American Civil War is that it was fought
between a progressive and modern society in the north against a
traditional hierarchical society in the south, which still clung to
its 'peculiar institution' of slavery. This view presents the north as
industrial and urban while the south was agricultural and rural, with
one-quarter of northerners living in urban areas in 1860, compared to
only one-tenth of southerners[2]. However, this traditional view
disregards the fact that the north was still very much agricultural,
with 40% of the region's workers employed in the agricultural sector
of the economy. It is true that in the previous 40 years before the
Civil War, the northern states of America were moving towards
urbanisation, with a powerful manufacturing sector. By 1860, 15 of the
largest 16 cities in the USA were located in the states that remained
loyal to the Union[3] and the urban population in America grew 3 times
faster than the rural population from 1810-1860, going from 6% to 20%
of the total[4]. Industrialisation encouraged immigration to northern
towns in America and immigration resulted in the north and the south
of America moving further apart in terms of social structure.
Immigration was by far the largest factor that accounted for the
growth in population in the USA, which increased by 15...
