Georgia Division - Regional Differences video from the
Georgia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans
The Georgia Division of the Sons
of Confederate Veterans has created several one minute videos. This video is on the
Regional Differences that were a major factor resulting in War.
One of the biggest reasons leading to the American War Between
the States was the huge difference in culture and way of life between North
and South. In the North, particularly New England, manufacturing and industry
provided the main source of income and jobs, and most people lived in cities.
In the South, however, most people still lived in rural settings and farmed
for a living.
Northerners had also become much more secular in their outlook on life and
readily accepted even religions which questioned the authority of the Bible
and orthodox Christianity. Southerners, however, continued to have a deep love
and abiding respect for the Word of God.
Northern cities were crowded with people from every country of Europe and even
beyond, while the Southern states continued to be made up almost entirely of
people from the British Isles, with a large majority of them originating from
Ireland and Scotland. These people in the South had a much stronger tradition
of ties to the land and to family clans.
Northern city-dwellers tended to believe in bigger, stronger civil government,
while most Southerners felt that there should be less government in their
day-to-day lives.
