From Shmoop History on Antebellum Culture
Antebellum culture in America reflected the growing sectional crisis, at times seeking to pave over sectional differences and at other times making light of them. Congressmen pushed through a %26quot;gag rule%26quot; so that the difficult subject of slavery would simply be made taboo in the chambers of government. Playwrights invented %26quot;vernacular characters%26quot; that represented the Yankee of the North and the Cavalier of the South; these exaggerated embodiments of regional stereotypes enabled audiences to chuckle at the idiosyncrasies of each group. Sometimes, however, the differences between North and South were less pronounced than the similarities; while only southerners enslaved black people, white Americans from both North and South overwhelmingly embraced anti-black racism
Other dimensions of the economic, technological, and social changes underway in Antebellum American society manifested themselves in the national culture in surprising ways. The innovations of the mass printing press made possible the first popular newspapers and advertisements (especially in the cities), and fueled an explosion of printed material攆rom women's sentimental novels to classic works of literature to inflammatory abolitionist tracts. The rapid communication made possible by the telegraph facilitated the advent of mass spectator sports, in which men in saloons hundreds of miles from a horse race or boxing match could receive rapid updates on the progress and outcome. The new practice of photography dazzled Americans everywhere; they sent one another their portraits through the mail, purchased pictures of celebrities, famous political leaders and even erotic nudes, and received photographic evidence of whipped and abused slaves (whether they wanted to see it or not). The patriotic rhetoric championed by Andrew Jackson's administration empowered the common white man to feel as though he was an important part of the political culture. Partisan political machines created by both parties organized huge torchlight parades, transforming political participation into a spectacle of democracy, motivating the highest voter turnouts in American history.
