Mr. Benson's APUSH Blog

The Pre-Civil War South In the decades before the Civil War, northern and southern development followed increasingly different paths. By 1860, the North contained 50 percent more people than the South. It was more urbanized and attracted many more European immigrants. The northern economy was more diversified into agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, financial, and transportation sectors. In contrast, the South had smaller and fewer cities and a third of its population lived in slavery. In the South, slavery impeded the development of industry and cities and discouraged technological innovation. Nevertheless, the South was wealthy and its economy was rapidly growing. The southern economy largely financed the Industrial Revolution in the United States, and stimulated the development of industries in the North to service southern agriculture. The Impending Crisis For forty years, attempts were made to resolve conflicts between North and South. The Missouri Compromise prohibi...

Religious Transformation and the Second Great Awakening The American Revolution had largely been a secular affair. The Founding Fathers clearly demonstrated their opposition to the intermingling of politics and religion by establishing the separation of church and state in the first amendment to the Constitution. In part because religion was separated from the control of political leaders, a series of religious  REVIVALS  swept the United States from the 1790s and into the 1830s that transformed the religious landscape of the country. Known today as the  SECOND GREAT AWAKENING , this spiritual resurgence fundamentally altered the character of American religion. At the start of the Revolution the largest denominations were  CONGREGATIONALISTS  (the 18th-century descendants of Puritan churches),  ANGLICANS  (known after the Revolution as Episcopalians), and Quakers. But by 1800,  EVANGELICAL METHODISM  and  BAPTISTS , were becoming...