"At the time of the Declaration of Independence, Virginia was the most powerful of the colonies; she occupied a central position, and had in Norfolk one of the best harbors on the Atlantic. She had a vast western territory, an imposing commerce."*

"she might have asserted her colonial supremacy; she might have been the central power* . . . yet, with political generosity and magnanimity, she surrendered all this, not even reserving the receipts of sales of her public lands, but laid every thing on the altar of the Union.* In her action there was something very noble.* The settlement of the Northwestern Territory ceded by Virginia to the Union, and the formation of the powerful states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, out of it, were determined by the Ordinance of 1787."*

"The populations of English descent began to diffuse toward the West. It required, however, nearly sixty years . . . before they had fully gained the line of the Mississippi--a journey which was, as all first emigrations must be, destructive of human life. Men followed each other like the phantom waves made by the wind on the tall grasses of the prairies, forever disappearing and forever advancing.* Ohio was not admitted to the Union until 1803, Illinois not until 1818. The effect of the Great Lakes in retarding the tide of humanity is seen in the fact that Michigan was not admitted until 1837, Wisconsin not until 1847.* Gigantesque in his ideas, and not unfrequently in his conversation, the Western man is conscious of destiny when he affirms that he is laying the foundations of a great republic-- a Colossus that, in the days of his grandchildren, will grasp Europe in one hand, and Asia in the other." [Draper was writing this in 1867]*

THE RURAL MIDWEST Seven men and a boy pose in an Ohio farmyard holding pitchforks, a shovel, and other tools. Perhaps they "toast the harvest" or celebrate some other cooperative community effort. A wagon or carriage is visible in the distance. Sixth-plate daguerreotype Photographed by Byron W. Weston at Factory Gulf, Ohio 4 August 1853 (Click on the image to view further details) Pencil inscription written in back of case: "CONFIDENCE IN AN UNFAITHFUL MAN IN TIME OF TROUBLE, IS LIKE A BROKEN TOOTH AND A FOOT OUT OF JOINT Proverbs XXV Chapter, XIX Verse." In 1803 Ohio was the first state carved from the American West (the old Northwest Territory). Fifty years later, the "West" bordered the Pacific Ocean and the rural Ohio heartland now anchored the Midwest. This daguerreotype and inscription capture a spirit of husbandry and community central to the American Dream in the 19th century.

"At the formation of the Constitution it was also believed that African slavery would in like manner die in the South as it was dying in the North. Without serious opposition from any quarter, three very important points were introduced into that instrument.

--The first of these was equality of state representation in the United States Senate; this, in the subsequent course of events, let to the doctrine of the balance of power between the North and the South, its inevitable result being a rivalry in territorial expansion.* The balance of power in the United States Senate must be maintained against the North by the incessant creation of new slave holding states. That longing was twice gratified in the acquisition (1803) of the French possessions known as Louisiana by Jefferson, and the Spanish Territory of Florida (1819) by Monroe. The subsequent annexation of Texas was occasioned by the same policy.*

--The second was the three-fifths slave computation in the appointment of federal numbers, which at once tended to enhance the political value of the negro, and to exclude all other forms of labor and the use of machinery.* Machinery and slavery are incompatible--the slave is displaced by the machine.*

--The third was the contingent stoppage of the African trade, the emigrant supply for the North being unchecked. The South would never have consented to this had its operation been foreseen. It was this that eventually overwhelmed her."*

AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN IN CHATTEL SLAVERY (Click on the image to view further details) Half-plate daguerreotype of a slave holding a prize bull, photographed by daguerreian Montgomery P. Simons. Probably taken in Charleston, South Carolina c. 1849. According to the American Constitution of 1789 both the man and the animal were pieces of property.

"At the adoption of the Constitution the population North and South was nearly equal; each of the two regions had nearly two millions of inhabitants, if we include for the South half a million of slaves. Their territory to the Mississippi was nearly equal; it was about 400,000 square miles: for the North, 406,000; for the South, excluding Florida, 399,400. Their commerce was equal. The annual exports of the North were $8,461,209; those of the South, $8,555,074. The assessed values of property in the two were equal, being about four hundred millions of dollars. But very soon the North began to display a greater progressive power than the South: its advancement was seen in its population, its trade, its wealth."*

"The difficulty of supplying cotton fiber in quantity sufficient to meet the demands of the new machinery was due to the imperfect means in use for separating the cotton from the seeds--a tedious operation, for the picking was done by hand. Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, by his invention of the cotton-gin in 1793, removed that difficulty. The fibre could be separated from the seeds with rapidity and at a trifling cost. There was nothing now to prevent an extraordinary development in the English manufactures. A very few years showed what the result would be. In 1790 no cotton was exported from the United States. Whitney's gin was introduced in 1793. The next year about 1 ½ million of pounds were exported; in 1795, about 5 ½ millions; in 1860, the quantity had reached 2000 millions of pounds."*

"Cotton could be grown through all the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States. It was more profitable than any other crop--but it was raised by slaves.* After the invention of Whitney's gin, the bond of negro slavery united the South. Uniformity of interests and of pursuits, arising from the cultivation of tobacco and cotton, imparted homogeneousness to it.* A powerful interest had come into unforseen existence both in Europe and America which depended on perpetuating that mode of labor."*

"THE OLD SOUTH" Jesse Jeter of Bedford County, Virginia poses in front of his plantation on Big Otter Creek Sixth-plate "RELIEVIO" ambrotype Photographer unknown Bedford or Lynchburg, Virginia c. 1859 (Click on the image to view further details)

An example of a relievio ambrotype (two ambrotypes sandwiched together to achieve a 3-D effect). The first image was a portrait of Jeter (who died in 1862) made inside a gallery with the emulsion scraped off around the outline of the subject. The second image was taken outdoors of the subject's homeplace and mounted behind the first portrait image to gain the effect of depth and perspective. This technique provided a product that copied portrait paintings of the era. Artists would paint a portrait and then paint the subject's property as a background. It is possibly three of Jesse's sons that stand posed in the field of this image of the old South.

"The colonization of the North of the republic differed intrinsically from that of the South. It was inspired by an idea--freedom of thought. Not that the austere men who asserted this intellectual right understood it in all its fullness. At first, in the face of outlawry, exile, tempest, famine, death, they only claimed it for themselves. It was by degrees they learned at length that they must concede it to others."*

"Deceived by their erroneous interpretations of Scripture, or perhaps not reflecting maturely on the immorality of their act, the Puritan colonists were drawn into the African slave-trade. With an incongruity so quaint as often to provoke the reader's mirth, they blindly mixed up deeds of wickedness with the most pious aspirations, and became, to a very large extent, slave-carriers to the South."*

By the Confederation era, the North had become something of "a self-conscious democracy, animated by ideas of individualism." The South was increasingly evolving into "an aristocracy, produced by sentiments of personal independence and based upon human slavery.* Individualism was the governing principle of the North, Independence that of the South. In the former each man was pursuing his own welfare against all the rest; in the latter, apart from the rest. The one was connected with the competitions of compact society, the other with the isolation of plantation life."*

"Each year the social divergence of these two great communities was becoming more marked. It was obvious to every observant person that it would at length find political expression. Intercommunication, which so powerfully smooths the asperities of rivalry, did not keep pace with the increase of population and territorial spread.* Side by side, in the free states and in the slave state, partly through an initial social difference, partly through climate, interest, and avocations of life, two distinct nationalities were tending to form."*

"There is no better indication of the distribution of political power than the distribution of political patronage. Guided by that principle, it may be perceived that the South, . . . was, during this epoch, the dominant power in the republic.* Washington was a Virginian, and had been re-elected; Jefferson was a Virginian, and had been re-elected; it was the same with Madison, and the same again with Monroe. During a period of forty-eight years (1789-1837), the Slave States had held the reins of government for forty years, the Free States only eight."*

"To the Northern politician, who, during Mr. Monroe's administration, recalled the past annals of the republic, the future was without hope. In supercilious pride his southern antagonists had imposed a protective tariff, that they might make him their spinner and weaver; he had resisted it in vain, little dreaming what its issue would be. It was intended to diminish his commercial gains by touching his carrying interest. But the New England manufacturing power, thus stimulated in its growth, quickly showed what it was about to do. Every mill and machine-shop became a center from which wealth was diffused.* Up to 1824, the Eastern States may be considered as having commercial interests that predominated over their manufactures, and hence they were advocates of free trade, and, as has been stated, opponents of a protective tariff, which had heretofore found its chief support in the Southern, the Middle, and the Western States. In the course of a few years manufacturing industry underwent a rapid development. New England discovered that it had become of singular value to her; the Southern States detected the mistake they had made; and the leading representatives of these different sections were compelled to change their position."*

After the War of 1812, New England's wealth and influence spread across the globe in billowing fleets of sailing ships. This sailor or whaler posed when America led the world in the "gallant age of sail". Her clipper ships were fastest and most beautiful. New England dominated the opulent China trade. Fur traffic to unpopulated coasts of California and Oregon was but a shadow of imminent traffic to the gold fields. This young subject dressed well for his time "before the mast". He sports a be-ribboned straw hat, Levi-like dungarees, knotted kerchief, and double-breasted jacket with uniform buttons on cuffs and front.

JACK-TAR OR WHALER in traditional dress Sixth-plate daguerreotype Photographer unknown c. 1848 (Click on the image to view further details) His image evokes a lost era of American history.

A VISUAL SYMBOL OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Machinist in work hat and apron holding calipers, lathe part, and gear. Sixth-plate daguerreotype Photographer unknown c. 1855 (Click on the image to view further details) Industrialism dividing the Northeast from the agricultural South contributed inevitably to the approach of war.

By 1850 the economy of New England and the Northeastern states had changed forever. Industrialization and the factory system replaced shipping and mercantile trade as the basis of wealth and power. Henry Clay's "American System" included a factory production new to the world: --displacement of hand labor by machine labor, --increased production of finished objects by exact duplication of interchangeable parts, --increased precision with development of automated machine tools. The factories of the 1840's and 1850's had become essentially the factories of today in rationale of progress. The exercise of the New England Yankee's passion for economy, neatness, and logical order had made the world over. See Bernard DeVoto, The Year of Decision 1846 (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1943), 214-15.