1. Georgia History Chapter 12
A NATION COMES APART
Georgia History
Chapter 12

2. Differences between the North and the South
It was evident that, even after the American Revolution, trouble was brewing between the North and the South. There were differences in economics, regional pride, beliefs in the rights of state government vs. federal government, and the issue of slavery.

3. Economic Differences: The North
Unlike the South, the northern climate could not rely heavily on farming. The northern region had better water/road transportation for industry. This let to the growth of cities, and people became interdependent on other businesses.
The North depended more on the government for things like fire and police protection.

4. Economic Differences: The South
Southern climate allowed for an agrarian economy. Cotton, corn, rice, indigo were chief crops. There were few factories – mostly small family farms. Most people hunted and grew their own food.
Southerners were very isolated and independent – they did not need (or want) government support.

5. Growing Regional Differences
Because of these differences, both Northerners and Southerners cared more about how issues affected their region, not the nation as a whole (sectionalism).
Politicians who were supposed to be considering how issues affect the country were more interested in how issues affected their particular region.

6. Tariffs
Can be used to make money for the government (revenue), and to protect a nation’s industries from foreign competition.
Notherners favored high protective tariffs because of their industries. Southerners traded with Great Britain (including cotton clothing made from Southern cotton) were against tariffs. Other countries would place tariffs on American exports. In 1828 Congress placed a huge increase for tariffs on imported goods.

7. States’ Rights
Questions: Did states have the rights not specifically granted to the federal government? Could a state voluntarily leave the union?
Southerners favored sovereignty and that states had the rights of nullification (a federal law could be null and void in that state).

8. States’ Rights
South Carolina wanted nullification because of tariffs. Georgia considered it, but support for Andrew Jackson changed their minds.
Northern states felt no state could nullify a law – only the US Supreme Court. Unlike the South, the North believed succession would be illegal.

9. The West The West was still a territory (no states).
North and South divided on how the West should be developed.
Western territories had rich prairie soils, good climate and large rivers.
Northerners wanted gov’t to sell land for revenue for development, Southerners wanted land distributed as cheaply as possible.

10. Slavery Divides the Nation
Because industry was important in the North, many of the states began emancipating slaves.
Slavery was equal in states at first (Alabama made it 11 pro and 11 against).
1820 Missouri Compromise – Missouri created as slave state, and Maine created as free state. Slavery would be prohibited north of latitude Southerners were afraid this means most new states would be free states.

11. Compromise of 1850
When Texas was created in 1840s Southerners moved there with their slaves.
When California became a free state, the Fugitive Slave Law was created. The law didn’t apply to new western states (each state could vote). Georgians were upset, but agreed to the compromise (as long as the North agreed.)

12. Dred Scott
Slave who lived in free territory wanted to sue for freedom. Supreme Court denied his right to sue, and abolitionists in North were outraged.
Court also ruled that Congress could not ban slavery from America’s territories.

13. Slavery in Georgia
Slavery was desperately needed for cotton production, and planters felt threatened by abolitionists. The general feeling was that slavery was a “necessary evil”
Some owners wanted to free their slaves, but had to do it in secret. Freed slaves could not return to Georgia.

14. Liberia
William Crawford was Georgian who was US Secretary of the Treasury. He helped create American Colonization Society regarding the plight of slaves.
12,000 freed blacks settled in North Africa (Liberia). The Tubman family sent their slaves there who became future leaders of Liberia.

15. Free Blacks in Georgia
Freed Blacks in Georgia were treated like children and had to have a “guardian” to monitor their daily lives.
Freed Blacks were not allowed to live in the larger cities without guardians or paying high fees.
Georgia laws made it illegal to free slaves in other states or to be found free in Georgia. Freed Blacks could be forced into slavery again.

16. The Growing Controversy Regarding Slavery
Factors supporting slavery: 1) increase in cotton production, 2) Nat Turner’s slave revolt, and 3) abolitionists continued to anger Southerners.
Abolitionists organized multiple antislavery groups and media, and they set up the Underground Railroad. Slaves in South Georgia tend to runaway to Florida.

17. The Underground Railroad
Leaders of the Underground Railroad included fromer slaves Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, and many whites who believed slavery was morally wrong.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel that made people very angry about the treatment of slaves.

18. The South Fights Back
The Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution providing a $5,000 reward for anyone circulating abolitionist newspaper. By 1835 a person inciting a slave revolt could be put to death.
Southerners were resentful of what they believed were false descriptions of slavery and southern life.

19. Slavery Resistance in Georgia
Whites were in constant fear of a slave revolt. More and more restrictive laws were applied to the Slave Code.
Slaves would often revolt in a passive-aggressive manner (being “sick” or damaging property)
It was becoming obvious that the U.S. could no longer be divided on slavery. The U.S. would eventually have to become all-slave states or all free states.