Sectionalism Versus Nationalism and the Era of Good Feelings

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After the war of 1812, there was a strong sense of nationalism since the young United States had won a war against the powerful British Army. However, the loss of thousands of southern slaves and the British embargo led both the north and the south to lament over the cost of the war. The time period from 1815 – 1825 that some historians call the era of good feelings was not as positive a time period as the title implies; factions ran rampant on the verge of causing an implosion for our country’s political system. The United States began to dissatisfy some of its citizens and so the concerns of sectionalism, or the split of the country began to arise. There was a continuous riff between the south and the north over a few issues, a major one being slavery. The south argued that the slaves were necessary to support the southern economy. According to document A, the south were angry that the north was creating taxes that hurt the southern economy, thus increasing the need for slavery since they had to make up for the expense of the taxes. The south felt that the north was able...

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