How Sectionalism Became The Cause For American Civil War

The Southern and Northern states had different controversies that lead to the Civil War. Many in which dealt with economic, political, and social differences. America was a divided land where the Southern states were the states that had states and was big on cultivation. As opposed to the Northern states, they were free states and they were heavily populated. Tension developed around many different issues such as how to spread the United States economy and the relationship between the states and federal government. All of these issues led to sectionalism in the United States and pushed the country to the point of the war in the United States.

The social differences between the North and South caused rivalry and factional differences. Northerners were more educated and employed. And the Southerners most people made money off their agriculture and were less educated. In section 4a. Eric Foner suggests why Southern slave owners supported the expansion of slavery into the west because the Southern slave owners supported the expansion because they could expand without having to do their own hard labor. This supports that the Southerners didn’t have great education because they had their slaves to do their own work for them. These social differences made both Northern and Southern states think that one was better than the other which kept them from trying to accept each other.

The biggest issue that divided the Northern and Southern states were their political views. The North wanted a strong national government, they believed that the national government had complete power and jurisdiction over the country’s concerns. Abraham Lincon believed that the United States was one nation and that the nation couldn’t be divided or separated. But the Southern states begged to differ, they supported the state's rights and joined the union. In section 7. The election of Abraham Lincon in the year of 1860 contributed to sectional differences between the North and South was that Lincon was elected by only Northern/free states, he didn't win any votes in the Southern states. Political issues with the North and South states caused the most conflict between each other.

Economics was another big difference between the sections in the United States. In document 1a. The Northern economy was centered on manufacturing, they called for a high tax to protect from competition. And the Northern side had more of the railroads, roads, factories, etc. The South was more confident than the North but needed goods produced from the North. The South also wanted to make more railroads, roads, factories, etc. but they felt unwanted by the government and other places when it came to advancement. Economics only encouraged the problems with the Northern and Southern states.

These problems with the Northern and Southern states divided the nation before the Civil War. There were only short fixes through the laws and compromises like the Compromise of 1850, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, etc. to keep the peace. The Southern and Northers states had their controversies that lead to the Civil War.