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June 24, 1852

We have arrived at Nashville, Ethan having made a full recovery. From what I’ve seen so far, the West seems to be a sort of balance between the North and South. Ethan immediately picked up a pamphlet from the ground that detailed the differences between all three regions. Somehow, I don’t believe there are many copies of it.
The West, if the pamphlet is to be believed, supports free labor (Yay!), as the North does, but not for the same reasons. The West supports free labor to avoid job competition on farms from using slaves. This creates, as previously stated, a balance between the North and South. Compromise. Taking deals from two ends and making them into something that favors both ends equally. Is that not what the West is? Ideals that support both the North and South?
The West is, economically, very similar to the South, in that it is mainly based off farms. However, while the South depends on Slave Labor, the West does not. While the South disapproves of tariffs, the West supports them - the reason being, they wanted to use the revenue to build roads, canals, etc. in order to create transportation ability to ship goods to the eastern side of America.
This being so, it’s quite obvious that the West does not have the extreme contrasts that the North and South have with each other. Each section of America that I have seen - though, I admit that as we just arrived at the West, I cannot say much about it - has been affected in some certain way caused by the Industrial Revolution. The North by increased industry, the South by decreased agriculture - but inventions still were invented to aid the farmers, and the West by the railroads and turnpikes that were created to smooth travel going to or from the West, in order to boost their trading system.

I love the fact that the West proves that an agricultural economy is possible without slavery. However, the fact that they use paper money and not the standard gold or silver coins does slightly concern me…

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