Racism And The Antebellum South In The 19th Century

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In the 19th century, disconnect between the Northern and Southern American societies was becoming increasingly more apparent and the North and South found themselves in conflict. As the economies of the North and South became steadily more disparate so did the ideologies and philosophies of both factions. The North subscribed to a strong belief in industrialism and urbanization while the South remained adamant about maintaining an agriculturally subsistent economy. In an attempt to validate the ideologies of the “Antebellum South”, the South commended racism supported by false scientific theory, the theory of the “peculiar institution”, and antebellum literature while the North opposed such propaganda with various sociopolitical movements such as the abolitionist movement.…show more content…
Phrenology, made popular by Orson and Lorenzo Fowler with the Phrenology Almanac, providing scientific reasoning for the inferiority of african americans by asserting the correlation between elaborate measurements of the skull and an individual’s intelligence and potential for success. As of today, the theory has been proved to be en@rely fallacious however during the @me of the antebellum South it gave intellectuals who supported slavery a seemingly logical reason for adamantly upholding the values of the antebellum South. It didn't help that scientific literacy during this period was nearly nonexistent due to the fear caused by disease. Nearly a quarter of the population of New Orleans in 1833 perished from disease and as such many affluent Southerners flocked to nonscientific theories such as hydrotherapy and dietary theories, founded by Connecticut-born Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham, for
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