NORTH, THE, originally those of the English Colonies in America north of the Mason and Dixon line (q.v.), as distin guished from those south. They were New Hampshire, Massa chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. With the extension of settlements across the Alleghenies, the Ohio river was considered as a continuation of the Mason and Dixon line to the Mississippi river. Missouri, west of the Mississippi, was before the Civil War, considered part of the South because it was a slave-holding State, but after the Civil War it became a part of the North in its political and economic life. West of Missouri the boundary between the two sections followed the southern boundary of Kansas (37° N. lat.) to the Great Plains. Beyond were the Western States which, be cause they supported the North, were usually considered part of it during the great struggle over slavery. The characteristic Northern life and settlement was broken, however, by the Great Plains which may, therefore, be considered to form the western boundary of the section.
The division between the North and the South was in no slight degree a natural one. In the North land and climate made small farms with diversified crops the only profitable type of agricul ture. In the older sections the limited supply of farm land and the abundant amount of water-power stimulated manufacturing and the growth of town life. In the South, large plantations growing only cotton, or only tobacco, and dependent upon slave labour came into existence. As these economic systems with their attendant social differences grew in power and clashed in conflict over the virgin lands of the West, an intense struggle developed for supremacy, a struggle fought first, but vainly, in the halls of Congress, and later on the battlefields of the Civil War. The North through its victory gained undisputed political, economic and cultural supremacy. Politically, the North has always been the stronghold of the Republican Party which has fostered its industrial interests.