You are right to assume that the US was very agrarian during the time you mention. According to one text I teach out of, 80% of American households were "involved in agricultural production." (Amusingly enough, that stat is on a page that shows the exact medal you are talking about...)
As for your other questions:
The Northern states had a lot of farming. A society like that would have never been based in the South because it is promoting small farms worked by their owners (that's why you don't have a bunch of slaves on the medal). Southerners would never "venerate the plow" -- to them it would have been something that slaves used.
So it's not that there isn't enough agriculture. What's going on is that they are asserting that farming is morally superior to other forms of labor. This would likely be because a farmer would be "his own man" and not just have to work for someone.
I hope that helps... you didn't mention what the actual DBQ question was, so I can't tell you more about how this "document" would fit in.
No comments:
Post a Comment