The
Northern United States is a large geographic region of the
United States of America. Most Americans refer to the region simply as "the North". It is currently divided by the
United States Census as the
Midwest and
Northeast, both of which have their own sub-regions. Given its large size, the Northern United States includes a wide variety of
socioeconomic,
religious,
ethnic, and
cultural differences in its people.
History
To understand and define the North is to compare and contrast its development with the
Southern United States. Before the
American Revolution the South tended to be settled by people of
British or
Scotch-Irish Protestant stock, most of whom came to America as either
indentured servants or to simply better their fortunes from what they had known in their homeland. The North, however, in addition to these, was also settled by a much wider variety of groups - the Dutch founded the
New Netherlands colony in what is now
New York, the Swedes founded
New Sweden in what is now
Delaware, the colony of Pennsylvania, founded by
Quakers, was the destination of a large number of
Palatinate Germans, and in
New England the
Puritans, a well-educated and strict English Protestant religious group, founded the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans saw themselves as establishing a "City Upon A Hill"; this view of America as a "special place" would have a profound effect upon American history.
During the
antebellum period before the Civil War, the North and South developed in very different ways. The colder climate and rockier soils of the North led to less emphasis on agriculture than in the South. Northern farmers were usually subsistence farmers, while in the South large
plantations were not unusual. Furthermore, Northern farmers usually grew a wide variety of crops, including
corn,
wheat,
beans, and large numbers of
livestock. Southern farmers often focused on growing a few large cash crops, such as
cotton or
tobacco. In turn, the North developed a society in which
manufacturing and industry played a large role. In addition, large numbers of immigrants came to the Northern United States; many of these were
Irish Catholics driven from their homeland in the 1840s by the
Great Irish Famine. German Catholics and
Scandinavians also moved to the North in large numbers during this period. The South, in contrast, received very little foreign immigration before the Civil War. The North also developed the nation's first large cities; by 1880
Detroit,
Pittsburgh,
St. Louis,
Baltimore,
Cincinnati,
Chicago,
Milwaukee,
Buffalo, and
Cleveland all had well over 100,000 residents, while
Boston,
Philadelphia, and
New York City each had over 400,000 residents. By contrast, the South remained overwhelmingly
rural, with few large urban centers, and such cities as did exist, such as
Charleston,
Savannah, and
New Orleans had declined in importance since colonial times.
Despite these differences, however, it was the issue of
slavery that drove the North and South apart. Although most white Southerners did not own slaves, wealthy slaveowners, i.e. the so-called "
tuckahoes", tended to control Southern politics, and they vigorously defended the institution of slavery as essential to the region's unique character and prosperity. In the North, a small but growing and passionate group called
abolitionists declared that slavery was immoral and had to be ended, by force if necessary. In addition, the North's rapidly growing population gave it increasing power in the federal government, a fact which worried Southerners who felt that a Northern-dominated government might try to free the slaves. In 1860
Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois Republican, was elected President. Lincoln's victory came entirely from the Northern states; in most Southern states his name was not even on the ballot. Although Lincoln was a moderate on the slavery issue and declared that he did not intend to interfere with the practice of slavery in the South, many Southerners did not believe him, and in late 1860 and early 1861 eleven Southern states
seceded and formed their own nation, the
Confederate States of America.
The secession crisis precipitated the
Civil War. The Civil War is often considered to be the easiest historical way to identify "The North". A total of 23 Northern states, calling themselves the Union and dedicated to preserving the
United States of America as a single, united nation, went to war with the Confederate States. Led by President Lincoln, their primary goal was to crush the Confederates (or "rebels") and bring them back into the Union. After the
Battle of Antietam in 1862 President Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the rebel Southern states and thus transforming the conflict into a war to end slavery. The conflict lasted for four years, and while relatively few battles were fought on Northern soil (the great exception being the
Battle of Gettysburg in
Pennsylvania in 1863), the North suffered heavy losses in the war. However, by the summer of 1865 all Southern resistance had been crushed, slavery had been ended, and the Union had been preserved. The Union, or Northern, states which fought in the Civil War are: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri were deeply divided by the war, and although they did not formally secede they sent large numbers of troops to fight on both sides of the conflict. Other states which supported the Union, but are not generally considered to be a part of "The North", are Kansas, California, and Oregon.
Following its victory in the Civil War, the North would dominate American politics, economics, and industry for decades to come. Not until
Woodrow Wilson in 1912 would a Southerner become President, and not until
Lyndon Johnson in 1964 would a presidential candidate be elected from a former Confederate State.
New York City would become the economic and cultural capital of the nation, while prestigious
prep schools and universities in
New England such as
Yale and
Harvard would train Northerners for national leadership positions in government and industry. In the years from 1860 to 1930 the North would become the most populous and heavily
urbanized region of the nation. It was also the most ethnically diverse; in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries millions of immigrants would pour into the North from
Italy,
Russia,
Eastern Europe, and
Germany. Many of these immigrants would arrive at
Ellis Island in New York City; they would then create large ethnic neighborhoods in the North's larger cities.
Beginning in the 1950s the North began to lose population to the South and West, a region known as the "
Sunbelt". Much of this exodus was due to the declining industrial base of the North, as many factories closed and moved to the Sunbelt or even overseas to low-wage markets. This led some
sociologists to nickname the North as the "
Rustbelt", after the large number of closed factories in the region. By 1990 the South had passed the North in population, and as the North declined in relative population its political power declined as well. In the 1952 presidential election the 17 Northern states that fought for the Union in the Civil War held 254 electoral votes, by the 2004 presidential election they had only 200 electoral votes. Following the defeat of
Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election, no Northerner served as President until
Barack Obama in 2009. Obama was also the first Northerner actually elected President since
John F. Kennedy in 1960 (Gerald Ford, President from 1974 to 1976, was not elected). Generally speaking, the Northern states (and especially the
Northeastern United States), have become identified with the
Democratic Party, with the
Republican Party strongest in the South.
Definitions
In addition to the 18 states which fought for the Union in the Civil War, the states of
North Dakota,
South Dakota and
Nebraska are sometimes considered to be a part of "The North", although most of the residents of these states usually consider themselves to be simply Midwesterners and all three states are politically conservative, whereas many Northern States are progressive. The states of
West Virginia,
Delaware,
Missouri,
Kentucky, and
Maryland are by historical definition
border states; they have divided loyalties between North and South. Though divisions still remain, most Missourians consider themselves Midwestern, West Virginians remain divided in loyalties, most Delawarians consider themselves Northeastern, some Marylanders consider themselves Southern and others consider themselves Northeastern, most Kentuckians consider themselves Southern, except in the northern counties of the state directly south of the Ohio river across from Cincinnati, Ohio - where residents consider themselves northern.
Another definition used to constitute a northern state is
climate. Northern states predominately have a
humid continental climate (Köppen
Dfa or
Dfb). By this definition, excluded would be some southern parts of
Pennsylvania,
Illinois,
Missouri,
Indiana,
Ohio,
Maryland,
Delaware, and
Kentucky, which become subtropical (Köppen
Cfa) in the hottest months of summer, as well as the sparsely populated western portions of
Nebraska,
South Dakota, and
North Dakota, which have primarily a semiarid steppe climate (Köppen
BSk).
One former Confederate State that is becoming more divided in its identity is
Virginia; the rapid influx of Northern-born settlers to the suburbs which surround
Washington, D.C. (with a particularly large portion of these immigrants coming from D.C.) in Northern Virginia has led that state to increasingly resemble a border state rather than a true Southern one. Residents of
Northern Virginia usually think of themselves as part of the
BosWash, an amalgam of Northeast cities and suburbs, rather than as Southerners or even typical Virginians. However, the counties around Richmond tend to display more southern characteristics. Virginia's electoral votes were won by Democratic Candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election. The last election in which a Democratic presidential candidate won in Virginia was in the
1964 election.
Facts
- Population: 113,479,422 people
See also
Category:Regions of the United Statesfr:Nord des États-Unisla:Civitates Foederatae Septentrionalesja:アメリカ合衆国北部pt:Região Norte dos Estados Unidos da Américask:Sever (USA) 
