America wasn’t a widely urbanized country at the time of the Civil War, but as a result of the Industrial Revolution, its cities were multiplying and expanding. In the decades after the war, technology advanced rapidly, allowing farms to be tended by fewer people and creating more factory jobs in urban areas. These factors move the nation toward becoming an urban society.
Northern society was more urbanized than the South in the mid-19th century. Some 5.5 million Northerners were city dwellers, about a quarter of the 22 million people living in the Union states. Most of the balance, about 16.5 million people, lived in towns or villages or on farms.
By contrast, only about 10 percent of the South’s population — less than a million people — lived in cities. The remaining 8 million Southerners lived in small towns and villages, and on plantations and farms. Southern cities tended to be smaller, less industrialized and less congested than urban areas in the North.
Take a look at these amazing photos from Ronald S. Coddington to see what life of the U.S looked like in the 1860s.
A photographer aims his lens at a group of ladies and gentlemen standing in front of a pavilion inside Congress Park at Saratoga Springs, New York, Friday morning, August 28, 1863
A beardless man attired in frock coat and top hat sits astride his white mare. Horse and rider pose in front of an auction house and men’s store, circa 1860s
A child dressed in ruffled shirt, cape and fur hat sits on a horse in the front yard of a home adorned with four stately columns, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, circa 1860s
A clean-shaven gent sits upright upon a light four-wheeled buggy, hid hands firmly grasp the reins attached to two horses, circa 1860s
A crowd of folks gather around the Glen Mountain House in Watkins Glen, New York, circa 1860s
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