Geography (100–500)
Geography 100 — This region had long, cold winters and shorter growing seasons, which limited crop choices and encouraged smaller farms and industry.
What is the North
The Northern economy relied on these instead of large plantations.
What are factories and industry?
The South used these natural features as its main “highways” for moving cotton.
What are rivers
100 — These large Southern farms grew cash crops and relied on enslaved labor.
What are plantations?
This region had four distinct seasons and rocky coasts that supported fishing and shipbuilding.
What is the North?
This invention in 1793 made cotton processing much faster and increased demand for enslaved labor.
What is the cotton gin?
By 1860, about how many miles of railroad did the North have compared with the South (general idea)?
What is: the North had many more miles — roughly over 20,000 miles, far more than the South?
Name two reasons many immigrants settled in Northern cities in the mid-1800s.
What are job opportunities in factories and escaping hardships like the Irish potato famine or political unrest in Germany?
These fertile lowlands, long growing seasons, and broad rivers describe this region’s natural features.
What is the South?
Name one farming machine that helped make the Midwest a “breadbasket” by improving grain harvesting.
What is Cyrus McCormick’s reaper?
Name two transportation technologies or projects that supported Northern industry.
What are railroads and canals (and steamboats/steam engines)?
Give two examples of restrictions placed on enslaved people in the South (from the text
What are: bans on learning to read, limits on leaving the farm without permission, and bans on gathering without a White person?
Which region was known for growing tobacco and Cotton breacuse of its long summers
What is the South
Describe two economic reasons the South remained mostly rural with fewer factories.
What are (1) wealth concentrated in land and plantations that produced high-value cash crops, and (2) reliance on enslaved labor and river shipping reduced the incentive to invest in railroads and industry?
Explain why the South invested less in railroads than the North (connect geography, economy, and labor).
What is: the South’s flat land and wide rivers met plantation needs (river shipping sufficed), wealth was tied to plantations rather than infrastructure, and the reliance on enslaved labor and coastal shipping reduced pressure to build extensive rail networks?
Explain how life for free Black people in the North differed from life for Black people in the South before the Civil War (include two differences).
What is: In the North slavery was abolished in many states, so Black people were legally free but still faced discrimination (denied voting, schools, jury service), while in the South most Black people were enslaved, subject to slave codes and brutal conditions; free Black people in the South faced legal restrictions like special badges and extra taxes.
Explain how the North’s thick forests and natural harbors influenced its economy.
What is: forests provided timber for shipbuilding and trade, and natural harbors supported fishing, shipbuilding, and busy port cities like Boston?
Explain how industry, steam power, and railroads changed the North’s economy and society (give at least three effects).
What is: steam power and machines allowed factories to spread (not just by rivers), railroads moved goods faster and connected markets, cities grew around industry and rail hubs, and more people earned wages in factories?
Describe how steamboats and coastal ports connected Southern plantations to international markets
What is: steamboats carried cotton down rivers to port cities like New Orleans and Savannah, where sailing ships loaded cargo for export to England and Northern ports, enabling a river-and-sea trade system dependent on plantation production?
Analyze how the North’s and South’s social structures and economies contributed to growing tensions that led toward the Civil War (two or three key points).
What is: The South’s plantation, slave-based economy and social hierarchy concentrated wealth and power among plantation owners and depended on enslaved labor, while the North’s industrial economy, growing cities, and immigrant labor favored wage work and different social values; these economic and social differences led to political conflicts over federal power, slavery’s expansion, and rights—heightening sectional tensions.