What were the pros and cons of...?

Question

the north and south economically, politically, and socially in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries???

Answer 1

Do you mean the north and south states of the United States?

Answer 2

The south was predominantly agricultural during this period. They suffered most from the Civil War, since the battles were mostly fought there, and Sherman and the westerners had made quite a mess of Georgia in November and December of 1864. Atlanta had been a transportation hub before the war, just as it is now, though mostly for airplanes now.

Politically, the south voted Democratic pretty consistently during this period, you can well imagine they wouldn't go Republican. The shift changed after the Civil rights movement got so much support from Truman, Kennedy and Johnson.

Socially, the old estates were still in the hands of the old families, but they had lost their slave labor. They managed to hold on to many of their former slaves by allowing them to work a share of the estate, giving most of the crop to the landlord, and keeping some for themselves. The credit structure was such that the sharecroppers could never get out of debt, much as it was for white laborers in the north, working for a company that owned their homes and the stores they shopped in.  After WWI many African Americans tried moving north to escape the old system, only to find it wasn't much better there. Google the race riots in East St. Louis and Springfield Illinois.

There were small independent white farmers, just as before, but they weren't much competition for the "Modern enlightened slave holders". The former slaves were free, on paper, but they weren't allowed to vote, they couldn't afford to leave, unless they ran away, and they kept working for practically nothing.

The north was industrialized, and absorbing many of the immigrant population through industrial labor. The Trade Union movement, in existence since the 1840s, was growing, with people like my great grandfather agitating for the luxury of a 55 hour work week, with Sunday off and a half day on Saturday. Politically, the GOP was in control and wasn't looking to let go.

Socially, there was a labor movement, the bloomers were invented, and a bicycle craze began, with affluent young ladies shocking their parents by riding these devices with divided skirts. There was more popular literature, from the penny dreadfuls the young boys would read to books like Huckleberry Finn, a novel Ernest Hemingway would later claim was the real beginning of American Literature.  There were actions taken on this continent, against laborers, such as at Homestead Steel, and against natives, such as at Wounded Knee Creek. There were actions taken overseas, vehemently protested by the author of that same Huck Finn, who found it appalling that we would try to subjugate the Filipinos, but found nothing sympathetic to say about the natives of this continent.

And all of this little opera of ours was presided over by a small group of very wealthy men, who like the gambler of song and story, stood to make a bundle no matter who won the game.

Answer 3

The south was based on agriculture and the north was based on industry.