Sunday, September 2, 2012

The white difference



The cultures of the North and the South differed greatly if you were wealthy and white. Well to do white men depending on where they called home, differed in how they made their money, the type of places they lived, who their work help was, and even their overall manners themselves. If you were black, poor white, or an immigrant your situation though slightly different based on Northern or Southern location was more similar. 

During the early 1800’s white men of wealth earned their income in very different ways. Those in the North were largely of the merchant class, where industry was slowly beginning to take place, including the fishing industry. Along with the arrival of the cotton gin came an expansion in slavery in the Southern states, along with plantation lifestyle. Workers of northern industry included immigrants, poor whites, and eventually free blacks; all paid little and working long hours. Southern workers were largely slaves, bought to work on farms or in houses doing hard labor, and occasionally poor whites who were hired for day labor. [1] The lifestyles and homes of the wealthy white class were also distinct in each location. Large homes, in largely populated cities, with many distractions such as the theater, shops, and bars were the surroundings in the North. While in Southern states there were smaller cities, but large private properties with large homes.  Southerners too had the theater, but plantations proved a great deal to manage and took up a great deal of time. A large distinction of the South was what is referred to as the Southern gentleman.  The manner, in which Southerners prided themselves, generally referring to hospitality for strangers and very refined behavior, was a distinct attitude portrayed in the southern white elite. George Washington was evident of this as well especially in regards to visitors to his Mount Vernon home, “between 1768 and 1775 alone, the Washingtons hosted, fed, entertained, and prepared guest rooms for about two thousand people, or twenty-four guests per month. Later years were even more hectic.” [2]

There is one area in which wealthy white men of both the North and South were similar it was in their estimation of the black man. “Overwhelmingly, Northerners and Southerners believed in innate white superiority and the need to defended white supremacy.” [3] Both Southerners and Northerners generally believed that once slavery was over the black race could not survive, that Southern slaveholders were keeping them alive by keeping them in bondage. Remarking on two gentlemen with opposing viewpoints in other political matters Genovese states that, “both gentlemen agreed that the inherent weaknesses of the black race forecast its disappearance.” [4] 

Another large cultural similarity between the North and South was the treatment received by blacks, poor whites and immigrants. While slavery clearly was a distinct horror, the treatment received in the North towards free blacks was no better. In most cases northerners did not want them enslaved by the south, but they also did not wish them in their territory, on many occasions making plans or coming up with ideas to evict them somehow.  Poor whites and immigrants also faced many difficulties everywhere in America. Tending to work as day laborers alongside free blacks in some areas and slaves in others, they were looked down upon by some as being inefficient or lazy. “Many Southerners, especially elite women, had difficulty in seeing Irish servants as white. Northerners did no better.” [5] All over Immigrants and the poor were treated with contempt and condescension.

Culturally the north and the south seemed far different to the wealthy white planter, or the northern business owner, however both worked towards a better future for themselves and their children. That better future was far harder for those so similarly treated in the north and south, as the black, poor white, and immigrants were. Truly, “the limits that were placed on access to the dream of upward mobility were at least as important as eligibility.” [6]



This painting titled Slaves Waiting for Sale in Virginia by Eyre Crowe was put on display in 1861. This, along with others the website above tells about, are paintings depicting the many facets of slavery, and how their artists used them to combat it.

[1] Karin Enloe, American Cultural History. June 25, 2012. https://sites.google.com/site/drecultural/home/early-republic-through-civil-war (accessed September 3, 2012).
[2] Dave DeWitt, The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine (Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2010), 89.
[3] Eugene D. Genovese and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Fatal Self-Deception: Slaveholding Paternalism in the Old South (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 114.
[4] ibid., 118.
[5] ibid., 41.
[6] Jim Cullen, The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation (New York: Oxford Press, 2003), 70.

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