Sectionalism And Slavery

996 Words2 Pages

Slavery was a political, economic, social and moral issue that divided the citizens of the United States. Sectionalism is “loyalty or support of a particular region or section of the nation, rather than the United States as a whole” (“Sectionalism and Slavery). Slavery was a main factor of the sectional issue, dividing the country into North and South to the extent that it led to the Civil War; the main conflict was that southerners supported slavery and northerners opposed it. Because of the differences in history, economics, etc. in the states slavery was a main factor in the sectionalism between the North and South. The questions were whether rights of slave owners would be protected throughout the country, whether new territories would …show more content…

People in the North felt it was a moral wrong to treat slaves the way the South treated slaves. The American citizens were faced with the states becoming split apart over differences in opinions caused by the treatment of slaves. Tensions were high between citizens and their were many arguments breaking out, and in some places fights, but in the end, it had to be settled with one side completely winning and not being split down one side or the other in one nation. During the Constitutions compromises, to solve the problem of states’ taxes, the 3/5 compromise was made that said that each slave counted as 3/5 a person in states population and taxes (Carnes and Garraty 149). This caused discussions on if slaves were people and not just property. The social sectionalism of America was extended by continued debates between the citizens on how to treat the slaves and what actions would be taken for them as well as the moral consequences of treating slavery as property as the Constitution deemed them (Carnes and Garraty …show more content…

However, major progress was steadily being made. The Compromises made to appease the North and South and the question of slavery, stopped the North and South states for a little while but it did not indefinitely solve the problem and it soon led to the Civil War. After the war was won, Reconstruction began. Although slaves were freed during the course of the war, after people did not care much for them and still treated them with disdain. Racism started and blacks were denied rights that regular white citizens the US had like education, right to vote, etc. So although race based sectionalism was fixed a little with the emancipation of the slaves, the treatment of slaves did not improve by a large margin and progress still had to be made regarding the rights of blacks and the racism that developed against

Show More
Related

  • Sectionalism Dbq

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    One huge issue that led the country to sectionalism was slavery as some people wanted to support and allow slavery, whereas others didn’t. Sectionalism became more noticeable during the Missouri Compromise as the government didn’t allow slavery above the 36’30 line. As a result, the Northern and Southern region became more defined as the North wanted to abolish slavery, but the South wanted to keep it as the country expanded. When America added the Mexican te...

    Read More

  • Sectionalism And The Breakup Of The U.s

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    slave-states in the south as far as representation in the government was concerned. concerned. I am not a & nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;Another part of the slavery controversy was the moral issue and weather... ... middle of paper ... ...political parties.

    Read More

  • The Breakup of the Union

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the years paving the way to the Civil War, both north and south were disagreeable with one another, creating the three “triggering” reasons for the war: the fanaticism on the slavery issue, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the separation of the Democratic Party. North being against the bondage of individuals and the South being for it, there was no real way to evade the clash. For the south slavery was a form of obtaining a living, without subjugation the economy might drop majorly if not disappear. In the North there were significant ethical issues with the issue of subjugation. Amazing measures to keep and dispose of subjugation were taken and there was never a genuine adjusted center for bargain. Despite the fact that there were a lot of seemingly insignificant issues, the fundamental thing that divided these two states was bondage and the flexibilities for it or against. With these significant extremes, for example, John Brown and Uncle Tom's Cabin, the south felt disdain towards the danger the Northerners were holding against their alleged flexibilities. The more hatred the South advanced, the more combative they were to anything the Northerners did. Northerners were irritated and it parted Democrats over the issue of bondage and made another Republican gathering, which included: Whigs, Free Soilers, Know Nothings and previous Democrats and brought about a split of segments and abbreviated the street to common war. Southerners loathed the insubordination of the north and started to address how they could stay with the Union.

    Read More

  • The Growing Opposition to Slavery

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Three Fifths compromise states that a slave be counted as three-fifths of a person. Therefore, the population of the southern states equaled the population of the northern states. Now that the populations were balanced, the south and the north sent the same amount of representatives to the House of Representatives. Pro-slavery southerners felt as if the north still had an advantage, but it was actually the south that had the advantage in the Senate and the House of Representatives.... ...

    Read More

  • The Beginnings of the Sectional Crisis

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    The South did not seem to have a problem with the system of slavery. After all, why should they? it had been successful for over 200 years. Instead, they saw the North as a cruel society full of the treacheries caused by capitalism. They saw factory work as "wage slavery" while they viewed Southern slavery as "paternalistic" and "benevolent." Slavery, they contended, helped eliminate all class distinctions in Southern society. In the North, they saw, factory owners became rich while their employees lived in a state of poverty. Slavery was the great unifier of Southern society.

    Read More

  • The U.S. Constitution and Slavery

    408 Words  | 1 Pages

    The south and the north made numerous compromises to create a great nation. The first indirect compromise was when the constitution didn’t mention slavery in the constitution, they left that for the states to deal with. After years after when the congress decide to stop the slave trade in 1808, they gave the south time to adjust to this but they new that by the time the slave trade died line was over the slave would have reproduces and they would have more slaves. Third compromise gave the south more power. They had notice that they had less seats in the house of representative. States with the most slaves, for instance Virginia and Maryland, were get out number in the house of representative, so the compromised to have the slave counted as part of the population. They got three counts for every five slaves. This helped balance the house of representative.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Reconstruction Period

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... and slavery left millions of newly freed African Americans in the South without an education, a home, or a job. Before reconstruction was put in place, African Americans in the South were left roaming helplessly and hopelessly. During the reconstruction period, the African Americans’ situation did not get much better. Although helped by the government, African Americans were faced with a new problem. African Americans in the South were now being terrorized and violently discriminated by nativist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Such groups formed in backlash to Reconstruction and canceled out all the positive factors of Reconstruction. At last, after the Compromise of 1877, the military was taken out of the South and all of the Reconstruction’s efforts were basically for nothing. African Americans in the South were back to the conditions they started with.

    Read More

  • The Civil War: Reconstruction

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves. Although Reconstruction failed in many aspects such as the upraise in white supremacy and racism, the reconstruction era was a time the United States took a lead in the direction of race equality.

    Read More

  • Reasons why the South Won Reconstruction

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Civil War marked a defining moment in United States history. Long simmering sectional tensions reached critical when eleven slaveholding states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Political disagreement gave way to war as the Confederates insisted they had the right to leave the Union, while the loyal states refused to allow them to go. Four years of fighting claimed almost 1.5 million casualties, resulting in a Union victory. Even though the North won the war, they did a horrible job in trying to win the peace, or in other words, the Reconstruction era. Rather than eliminating slavery in the South, the Southerners had a new form of slavery, which was run by a new set of codes called "Black Codes”. With the help of President Johnson, the South continued their plantations, in essence becoming exactly what they were before the war. Overall, the South won Reconstruction because in the end they got slavery (without the name), they got an easy pass back into the Union, and things reverted back to the way they had been prior the war.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Reconstruction

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    On one hand the slaves were free, and on the other hand they were not given equal rights, and they were discriminated for the color of their skin tone. In other words, Reconstruction was a mixed success, which combined both positive and negative impacts. By the end of the era, the North and South were once again reunited, and all southern state legislatures had abolished slavery in their constitutions. However, it some sense, Reconstruction was a failure because blacks were not provided equal rights and opportunities. Racism and segregation did not end at all. On the other hand, there was a huge change to the country as the US was completely in a chaos stage during the civil war. Despite some obstructions, it can be concluded that the Reconstruction was somewhat beneficial for African American. As time passes, many schools and colleges were founded for blacks, and many other doors were opened to uplift their life. Overall, all these outcomes can be considered as a huge

    Read More

  • The Creation Of The Constitution

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    Furthermore, the creation of The Constitution caused much debate between the elite and democratic states because they thought that if the Government got all of the power, they would lose their rights. The conflict between the North and South played a major role in the development of this document. The North felt that representation in Congress should be based on the number of total people and South felt that it should be based on number of whites. However, The Three Fifths Compromise settled this when it was said a slave will count as 3/5 of a free person of representatives and taxation. Article one section two of the Constitution defines how the population will be counted, obviously there was a strong opposition to this by Southern states like Virginia because their economy was based on slave labor and they had a bigger population because of it.

    Read More

  • Conservatism In The South Essay

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though other areas in the country did contain slavery, the south was the only region that maintained plantation slavery. Since the south was so involved and reliant on slavery, it was an area of the country that found its identity on more than just the Constitution and American ideals. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, delegates, such as James Madison, noted that there was a clear division between the northern and southern states based on whom own slaves. Even in the early nineteenth century, the idea of the south existed in the minds of southerners and their identity was commonly founded in slavery. Since slavery was maintained for a great length of time and southern blood was shed to defend it, it was an identity that was passed down from generation to generation. This passing down of southern values would explain why distinct characteristics rooted in slavery continue to

    Read More

  • What Were the Key Issues Leading To the Civil War?

    2033 Words  | 5 Pages

    Madaras, Larry, and James M. SoRelle. Issue 14 “Was Slavery the Key Issue in the Sectional Conflict Leading to the Civil War?." Taking Sides. 13th ed. Dubuque, IA: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2009. 310-329. Print.

    Read More

  • Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Anti-Federalists

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    One agreement the Constitution consisted of was the three-fifths Compromise. Foner states that the Constitution did not allow the national government to meddle with slavery in the states. This meant that three out of every five slaves could be counted as part of the state 's population. The powerpoint mentions that this raised their representation in the House of Representatives. The congress could not mess with the slave trade until

    Read More

  • Slavery as the Cause of the American Civil War

    1746 Words  | 4 Pages

    Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict. Slavery has existed in the New World since the seventeenth century prior to it being exclusive to race. During those times there were few social and political concerns about slavery. Initially, slaves were considered indentured servants who will eventually be set free after paying their debt(s) to the owner. In some cases, the owners were African with white servants. However, over time the slavery became exclusive to Africans and was no limited to a specific timeframe, but life. In addition, the treatment of slaves worsens from the Atlantic Slave trade to th...

    Read More

More about Sectionalism And Slavery

Open Document