Answer:
The North’s development was characterized by a common system of free labour, commercial vigour, and agricultural diversity. In the 19th century transportation developed markedly along east-west lines; e.g., the Erie Canal opened up the Great Lakes in 1825, and New York City was connected to Chicago by rail in 1852. Thus, both immigration and trade bound northern sections together, creating a remarkable homogeneity of ideology, political and educational institutions, cultural ties, and economic patterns. By the 1850s the question of the extension of slavery into the western territories was the central issue uniting the North and bringing it into conflict with the South. On the eve of the American Civil War (1861), there were 19 free and 15 slave states, the boundary between them following the Mason and Dixon Line, the Ohio River, and latitude 36°30′ (except for Missouri). The North attained its highest self-consciousness as a region during the war, when its name became synonymous with the Union. Including the four border states that fought with the Union, the North at this time had a population of 22 million, produced 75 percent of the nation’s wealth, and possessed 81 percent of its factories. The North attempted, largely unsuccessfully, to ensure the political enfranchisement and socioeconomic equality of African Americans in the South during the Reconstruction period (1865–77). Meanwhile, the North itself was experiencing an unprecedented period of economic growth as it underwent industrialization. As the 19th century progressed, the North, particularly the Middle Atlantic states and the Great Lakes area of the Midwest, became more and more typified by big cities, big business, and big industrial complexes. Its ample natural resources, excellent inland waterway system, and proliferating railways confirmed the North as the economic hub of the country, while the vast expanse of prairie and plain on both sides of the Mississippi gave the western reaches of the North the agricultural dominance that would make it America’s breadbasket.
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