Population Movements

Aside from slavery, among the most striking differences between the northern and southern sections of the country were those associated with immigration and internal migration of the free white population. The nineteenth century saw a massive increase in the number of immigrants coming to the United States with the overwhelming majority – 86.7 percent of the foreign born – living in the northern states. The Emigrant’s Manual, a travel book intended for Britons interested in moving to the United States, warned the emigrant that

the slave states are unsuitable for his purposes. The mechanic and farm-labourer will not seek a country where honest industry is associated with bondage and all its degradations. But what is more material, there is no room for him…However dear slave labour may be made in a slave state, it will always be cheaper than free labour; were it not, the masters would abandon their slaves.

The pattern of internal migration, as reflected in the 1860 census, also reinforced the slave-state versus free-state dichotomy. People born in free states tended to settle in other free states when they migrated while people who were born in slave states tended to settle in other slave states, although the tendency of people from slave states to move to free states was greater than the tendency of people in free states to move to slave states. According to the 1860 census, 350,700 free people born in free states were residing in slave states whereas 709,600 free people born in slave states were residing in free states. Given that ten million more people lived in the northern states than the southern states, the fact that twice as many people left the southern states for the northern states than went the other way has significance.