Isabella Cheney Grant Haroldsen DC US History 24 February 2023 The Effects of Sectionalism on Early American Society Sectionalism in the United States was a conflict that continued to grow over the history of the early States. The beginning of sectionalism in the United States was when the country was only a few colonies. It began especially with the Declaration of Independence and the rights each state would have in the new government. Among the leading causes for building sectionalism are the economic impact of the South and slavery, the southern biases of many of the American presidents, the expansion of slavery into the new western lands, and the new laws and compromises put in place to ‘keep the peace’ between the North and the South. …show more content…
Though the Northerners wanted to get rid of slavery completely in every state, they were unwilling to let it continue to grow across the nation. As for the South’s views on spreading to the West; in a court case called for by a slace named Dred Scott, John C. Calhoun believed that “life, liberty, and property” appartained to slaves- ‘slaves count as property, so they can be taken anywhere’. The South also forced its influence on the states-such as California-that did not want to become slave states. Bleeding Kansas was an important event in the spread to the West. Pro-slavery groups snuck into Kansas to influence the popular sovereignty vote to be in favor of slavery. The underhandedness of the South was called out only a few times; however, every time the North was punished for speaking out against the South. The North soon realized that the only way to defend their rights, lifestyle, and the elimination of slavery was to turn to the South’s style of violence and deception and return it. As new laws and compromises were made to help each side stay satisfied, the tension between the two sides only grew …show more content…
The Missouri Compromise included the 36 30 line to split the slave states and the non-slave states(Missouri was- at the time- the only exception to this rule). Both sides were seemingly happy with the Missouri Compromise until the newly gained Mexican territory was added into the equation. The Great Compromise was made to settle which areas of land would allow slavery and had objections on both sides. New states such as California (which were extensive and split down the width of the country) did not become slave states, but it gave the Southern slave states a chance to be even more harsh towards their slaves and push against the North for more control. The Kansas-Nebraska Act favored the South over the North because the 36 30 line was erased to make room for popular sovereignty, giving the South the chance to influence the new states to become pro-slavery. As Congress tried continaully to satisfy both sides, each side would only grow upset at every negotiation that was tried, both sides not willing to compromise and wanting complete
Then the very thing both sides were looking for happened. The first chunk of land was taken out of the Louisiana purchase, and that land was invaluable to both sides. Acquiring the land would mean tipping the odds in their favor for both sides. But on the other side of this the land would have created an imbalance in the states, which would have led to a larger conflict, and perhaps a fight. Then the idea which would later become the missouri compromise was set on the table.
The North, which were anti-slavery, argued that Congress had the power to prohibit slavery in the new state. Meanwhile, the South,which were pro-slavery, believed that states, rather than the government, should have the right to decide whether they wanted slavery or not therefore they argued that the State of Missouri had the right to decide whether they wanted to be a slave state or not and that it should not be up to the Congress to decide. In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise which allowed Missouri to be a slave state and allowed Maine into the Union as a free state to resolve crisis, which a member of Congress, Henry Clay, offered. The history surrounding the nineteenth century led to the establishment of the Missouri
The young(er) United States was burdened with a multitude of issues and rising growth of sectionalism; from the Louisiana Purchase to Tarrifs, the bridge partitioning the North and South was ever-growing. Divisions between slave and anti-slave culture were devastating, Northerners turned against Southerners, friend against friend; brother against brother. The Louisiana Purchase was the aquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France, specifically Napoleon, by Jefferson. It was sold for an estimated 15 million dollars and near-doubled the size of the United States. While the purchase was beneficial for the U.S, it also caused many problems in and among the citizens.
As the United States moved west during its Westward expansion, it prevented the south from making the states above that line to become a slave state. Because of this the Compromise of 1850 was made so that certain states would be determined to be a slave state or not. In addition to this conflict, problems in Kansas and Nebraska sparked an internal territorial problem in these states. For example in Kansas there were battles over territories which either allowed slavery or opposed it. This caused the Kansas-Nebraska act to be
Before the passing of the Compromise of 1850, Congress needed to keep the power balanced between slave states and non-slave states in the government. To keep the balance, they passed the Missouri Compromise in 1820. This Compromise allowed Missouri into the union as a slave state and allowed Maine into the union as a non-slave state. As a result, the balance between slave states and non-slave states stayed equal. This resulted in neither the North nor the South having an advantage in passing laws.
Imagine that you are working on a cotton plantation in the middle of Georgia. The sun is blazing hot and your hands are callused from separating cotton from cotton seeds. You are only able to clean about one pound of cotton a day. That isn't enough to satisfy the demands of textile factories in the North. If only there was a faster, more efficient way to clean cotton.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” These words reflected the exact circumstance that was presented to the nation in the times leading up to the Civil War. Before there was a Union and Confederacy, the division began with just the Northern and Southern states. Not only were these regions different regarding geography, but they also had many different views about individual life in the states. One of those differences revolved around slavery.
Even though there were some groups who wanted compromises and solutions, they never appeared and there were not enough groups to bring together the big gap between the north and south. There may have been different options that people could have taken but there were irreparable causes that made it
In Modern times , American politics are very contentious and are disputed often and publicly. In 1700’s and 1800’s the country was divided from a political standpoint, much like it is today. On one half of the country you had the democratic southern farmers and in the north you had the republican industrial. Theses group were divided on the countries most controversial issues. The democrats were rooted in the slave trade, believed in a “strict” interpretation of the constitution and Nullifcation, and also want to secede for the union for unfair texting.
There were three important compromises before 1860: The Compromise of 1850, Kansas and Nebraska Act, and The Missouri Compromise. The Compromise of 1850 sought to be beneficial to both the North and South by making California a free state in tandem with creating the Fugitive Slave Act. In reality, it caused the issue of slavery to become a more prominent issue. Fugitive slaves living in the North now feared for their lives, and abolitionists became more resolved on the issue of slavery.
Southerners and the southern states challenged the main government in Washington between the years 1790 and 1835 with the Kentucky/ Virginia Resolves of 1798, the Missouri Crisis/ Compromise, and South Carolina’s Nullification of the Tariff of Abominations. The Southerners would not put up with such injustices such as the high tariffs and or free states coming to fruition. The North was getting fat with money from rising industry. The South had enough of the North taking advantage of them. The South was losing money and needed to put a hold on the country’s plans and the powerhouse the North was becoming.
Sectionalism The definition of the word sectionalism is the restriction of interest to a narrow sphere. There were 3 main sections that practiced sectionalism in the 1800s. These sections were the North, the South, and the West. A few events that created sectional conflict were tariffs, slavery, representation, and states rights.
While the North viewed slavery as a moral wrong, those in the South, such as John C. Vilhelm, saw it as a "positive good," employing free labor to benefit the southern agricultural economy. Furthermore, as new territories were gained as a result of the Mexican-American War, the question of whether or not slavery would be permitted in these new territories became a major point of contention between the North and South. This eventually resulted in the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, when the South seceded from the Union to protect their way of life and economy which was heavily dependent on
Before the Civil War, Americans tried to resolve their differences between free states and slave states by enacting compromises. The Missouri Compromise and the three-fifths compromise were temporary solutions used to keep the south happy in hopes that they wouldn’t secede. These compromises failed because neither the free states, nor the slave states where happy with the compromise. The failure of these compromises were what led to a war between the north and South.
There were many important Compromises between the years of 1820 and 1860, some that worked completely and some that didn’t. In the early nineteenth century, people were good at compromising and making things work for everyone. How long did perfect compromising actually last? Slavery began to split the nation apart, causing compromising to become hard to do.