Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T23:07:53.661Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Transportation Revolution and Antebellum Sectional Disagreement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

John J. Binder
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The transportation revolution had several important effects on the antebellum political equilibrium. First, it caused western and southern political views to differ by bringing more easterners and European immigrants into the West. Second, it reduced the costs of rerouting western exports to the non-South, which decreased the expected costs to the West of conflict with the South. Third, it greatly increased western population, which brought more free states into the Union and changed the balance in the Senate. Fourth, it increased northern numerical superiority over the South, giving the North a major advantage if an armed conflict did occur. These changes led the West to ally with the East and caused the South to secede.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 19 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2011 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albion, R. (1965) Square Riggers on Schedule. Hamden, CT: Archon.Google Scholar
American Historical Association (1900) Annual Report 1899, vol. 2. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Atack, J. and Passell, P. (1994) A New Economic View of American History. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Baker, G. E., ed. (1853) The Works of William H. Seward. New ed., vol. 1. New York: Redfield.Google Scholar
Bates, E. (1852) “Letter from the Hon. Edw. Bates of Missouri.” De Bow's Review May, 568–69.Google Scholar
Bauer, K. J. (1988) A Maritime History of the United States. Columbia: University of South Carolina PressGoogle Scholar
Berry, T. S. (1943) Western Prices before 1861. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Binder, J. J. (2009) “The transportation revolution and antebellum sectional disagreement.” Working paper, November.Google Scholar
Bogart, E. and Kemmerer, D. L. (1947) Economic History of the American People. New York: Longmans, GreenGoogle Scholar
Burwell, W. M. (1856) “The policy of the South: Suggestions for the settlement of sectional differences.” De Bow's Review, November, 469–90.Google Scholar
Callender, G. S. (1909) Selections from the Economic History of the United States. Boston: Ginn.Google Scholar
Carey, H. C. (1869) Letters to the President. Philadelphia: Lippincott.Google Scholar
Carey, H. C. (1876) To the Friends of the Union throughout the Union. Philadelphia: n.p.Google Scholar
Channing, E. (1925) A History of the United States. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cotterill, R. S. (1917) “Southern railroads and western trade, 1840–1850.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 3: 427–41.Google Scholar
Craven, A. (1957) The Coming of the Civil War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Davis, C. A. (1861) Letter to John J. Crittenden, January 21. Crittenden Papers, University of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Davis, J. (1859) Speech of the Honorable Jefferson Davis of Mississippi on the Pacific Railroad Bill. Baltimore, MD: Murphy.Google Scholar
De Bow's Review (1846a) “The Convention of the Southern and Western States.” January, 7–21.Google Scholar
De Bow's Review (1846b) “Southern and western commerce.” February, 171–76.Google Scholar
De Bow's Review (1847) “Contests for the trade of the Mississippi Valley.” February, 98–111.Google Scholar
De Bow's Review (1851) “Address to the people of the southern and western states.” August, 142–75.Google Scholar
De Bow's Review (1854) “The Great Southern Convention in Charleston, no. 3.” August, 200–213.Google Scholar
De Bow's Review (1858) “Canals in the United States.” July, 102–5.Google Scholar
Easterlin, R. (1960) “Interregional differences in per capita income, population, and total income, 1840–1950,” in Conference on Research in Income and Wealth (ed.) Trends in the American Economy in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, NJ: National Bureau of Economic Research: 73–140.Google Scholar
Easterlin, R. (1961) “Regional income trends, 1840–1950,” in Harris, Seymour E. (ed.) American Economic History. New York: McGraw-Hill: 525–46.Google Scholar
Egnal, M. (2009) Clash of Extremes. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Fishlow, A. (1965) American Railroads and the Transformation of the Antebellum Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (1964) Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. (1989) Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Foner, E. (1980) Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Foner, P. S. (1941) Business and Slavery. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Freehling, W. W. (1990) The Road to Disunion, vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Freehling, W. W. (2007) The Road to Disunion, vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gienapp, W. E. (1987) The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goodrich, C. (1960) Government Promotion of American Canals and Railroads. New York: Kennikat.Google Scholar
Holt, M. F. (1978) The Political Crisis of the 1850s. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Holt, M. F. (2004) The Fate of Their Country. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Hulbert, A. B. (1920) The Paths of Inland Commerce. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jervey, T. D. (1909) Robert Y. Hayne and His Times. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kirwan, A. D. (1962) John J. Crittenden: The Struggle for the Union. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
Kohlmeier, A. L. (1938) The Old Northwest. Bloomington, IN: Principia.Google Scholar
Lord, D. (1861) The Effect of Secession upon the Commercial Relations of the North and South. New York: New York Times.Google Scholar
McAlpine, W. J. (1854) Documents of the Senate of the State of New York, no. 60. Albany, NY: Van Benthuysen.Google Scholar
McPherson, J. M. (1982) Ordeal by Fire. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Meyer, B. (1948) History of Transportation in the United States before 1860. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institute.Google Scholar
Milton, G. F. (1963) The Eve of Conflict: Stephen A. Douglas and the Needless War. New York: Octagon.Google Scholar
Morrison, J. H. (1858) History of American Steam Navigation. New York: Daye.Google Scholar
Nevins, A. (1947) Ordeal of the Union. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
New York Times (1852) “The southern trade convention.” December 20.Google Scholar
New York Times (1855) “Retaliation or disunion—letter from John C. Calhoun.” June 27.Google Scholar
New York Times (1856) “A railroad to Kansas.” May 9.Google Scholar
New York Times (1862) “The Illinois and Michigan Canal.” March 3.Google Scholar
Niles' Register (1818) “Chronicle.” February 28, 14.Google Scholar
North, D. (1966) The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790–1860. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Perkins, H. C., ed. (1964) Northern Editorials on Secession. Gloucester, MA: Smith.Google Scholar
Phillips, U. B. (1908) History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Plumb, R. G. (1911) History of Navigation on the Great Lakes. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Poor, H. V. (1868) Manual of the Railroads of the United States, 1868–1869. New York: Poor.Google Scholar
Riker, W. (1982) Liberalism against Populism. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Ruffin, E. (1857a) “Consequences of abolition agitation, no. 1.” De Bow's Review, June, 583–93.Google Scholar
Ruffin, E. (1857b) “Consequences of abolition agitation, no. 5.” De Bow's Review, December, 597–607.Google Scholar
Russel, R. R. (1918) “A revaluation of the period before the Civil War: Railroads.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 15: 341–54.Google Scholar
Shaw, R. E. (1990) Canals for a Nation. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Sibley, J. H. (2005) Storm over Texas. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Southern and Western Liberty Convention (1845) The Address of the Southern and Western Liberty Convention. Cincinnati, OH: n.p.Google Scholar
St. Louis Merchants' Exchange (1874) Memorial of the Union Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis to the Forty-third Congress of the United States. St. Louis, MO: Studley.Google Scholar
Stampp, K. (1990) America in 1857. New York: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. H. (1998) “Migration and political conflict: Precincts in the Midwest on the eve of the Civil War.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 28: 583–603.Google Scholar
Stover, J. (1978) Iron Road to the West. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Sutch, R. and Carter, S. B., eds. (2006) Historical Statistics of the United States. Millennial Ed. Online. New York: Cambridge University Press, hsus.cambridge.org/HSUSWeb/HSUSEntryServlet.Google Scholar
Sykes, W. (1852) “The development of southern resources: The best guarantee for the protection of southern rights.” De Bow's Review, May, 540–42.Google Scholar
Taylor, G. R. (1976) The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860. White Plains, NY: Sharpe.Google Scholar
Turner, F. J. (1920) The Frontier in American History. New York: Holt.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Office (1821) Census for 1820. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Ward, J. A. (1986) Railroads and the Character of America, 1820–1887. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Clyde, ed. (1959) The Papers of John C. Calhoun. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar