Themes in American History

Civil War is a war between northern and southern states to fight for slavery abolishment.  Besides that, the conflict sparked social and economic conflicts were existed among the states long before the war. Both New York City and St. Louis had profound effects from the war.  One of the bloodiest urban riots took place in July 1863, an official estimated of 1,000 deaths from the riot erupted in New York City. There were so many reasons for the riot, such as labor unrest, class and ethnic tensions and growing violence of street gangs. But the major reason was the race riot, which involved attacks on African Americans by wealthy whites. (Chudacoff, pg80, 6^th Ed.) Compare with the social conflict on New York City, the war reshaped the commercial patterns on western cities, such as St. Louis. St. Louis was one of the nation’s fastest growing cities in the 1850s. It is well known for its river transportation around and beyond the upper Mississippi River valley.  When the hostilities broke out, the Union army closed the lower Mississippi River to commercial traffic and imposed strict surveillance over all goods shipped out of St. Louis. The Civil War turned St. Louis’s geographic advantage into a liability. (Chudacoff, pg81, 6^th Ed.)

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Difference

During 1850’s Urban slaves enjoyed greater mobility and cultural autonomy than did the rural counterparts. City slaves partook of a wider world. They had access to food, drink, entertainment, and the common sociability of urban life. They sometimes ran their own churches and they often sneaked away to talk and drink with fellow slaves, free African Americans and even working class whites in the backalley groceries and grogshop scattered throughout every southern city. Preferring to avoid costs of housing their slaves, some master gave their slaves permission to live as well as work away. When slaves lived out, they often resided in rented rooms on the fringes of town where free blacks and poor whites also lived. On the other hand, rural slaves such as Bondsmen on plantations lived in the slave quarters and saw only their masters’ families and occasionally slaves from a nearby plantation. (Chudacoff and Smith, 73)

Common

The Civil war, like all wars, had a disruptive effect on American cities during 1863. The riots erupted in New York Cities as well as in Richmond, Virginia. In New York, the turmoil lasted for four days which resulting more than four hindered deaths. Similarly, many people died in Richmond as well. However, the war itself had varying effects on cities, depending on the social and economic climate. (Chudacoff and Smith 81-83)

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The focus of our course is on history relevant to that of New York.  However, while learning of the transition in New York history my curiosity grows for that of the unmentioned California cities.  For my post i decided to compare and contrast California with New York during the Civil War.  It is unclear if between 1800 and 1865, cities were established in California.  The text mentions that California was divided into upper and lower California at the time.  California officially became a state in 1850 and surprisingly played an important part during the Civil War.  Both upper and lower California belonged to the free Union but California had strong confederate ties because many southerners moved to the lower California area during the war.  During the civil war many confederates wanted control over lower California because of the large amount of gold present in that area but also because after the Union blocked off Southern ports, confederates wanted control over the southern California harbors.  Similar to the city of New York at this time, California was very involved in the civil war and had freed slaves living there as well.  However California was not as much of a large trade center in the United States and was just being discovered for what it was actually worth.

information taken from:  http://www.drumbarracks.org/Original%20Website/California.htm

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