Slavery Was Only Partially the Reason For The Hostility Between The North And The South

1020 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Differences between the north and south during the civil war

Slavery was the main reason for the hostility between the North and the South. How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

Slavery was part of the hostility between the North and the South. This was not the main reason though. Many other factors played a role. Who was to decide the feature of slavery? Should it be the Federal Government or the State Government? Question like these play an essential part in order to answer this question.

As the 13 colonies were established, diversities already started to appear. The South was focused on cops and tobacco, known as "Cash Crops". In order to produce these, large labor was necessary. The South bought slaves from Africa in order to fulfill these labor intensive jobs. The North on the other hand grew industrialized. They build factories all over their territory. With the invention of the Whitney's Cotton Gin, it was easier to farm the fields. With this invention, time was saved and more cotton and tobacco could be produced. But in order for this to succeed, more slaves were needed. This drew to tension between the North and the South as the North was against slavery.

As America expanded, more states joined the union. In the time of 1819, there were 22 states in the union: 11 free and 11 slave. As Missouri applied as a slave state, a big problem was created. Should a joining state be free or slave? If there was a tip in balance, it would also tip the balance in congress. This meant that if either side would establish majority, slavery either could be made illegal or legal. As a result of this, a compromise was established. Congressman James T. Tallmadge introduced an amendment. This was known as the Tallmadge Amendment and was the following:

1. All black children who would be born in the new state of Missouri would automatically became free when they reached the age of 25.

2. No new slaves would be allowed into Missouri.

This implied that all slaves in Missouri and elsewhere would gradually be made free. But most important it meant that "Congress had the right to legislate about a state's future attitudes towards slavery." The Federal Government would have the power to decide the future in slavery. This is one of the major factors that lead to the hostility between the North and the South.

This lead to heavy discussion because it would portray the Federal Government as superior.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of The Shattering of The Union by Eric H. Walther

    402 Words  | 1 Pages

    This was a good idea by the Governor but in all reality, it would never be successful at this point in time. The Emigrand Aid Society sent 20,000 men to try and override the election while the South Band sent 5,000 people across the Missouri armed and dangerous. The men were ready, “to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the Territory.” These men did their jobs

    Read More

  • Summary And Slavery: The Causes Of The Missouri Compromise

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    Congress was put in a tough position when Missouri applied for statehood, for they couldn’t have an uneven number of states. If they didn’t have an even number, they would have to come up with another idea to make slave states and free states equal, such as adding a state or neutralizing an existing slave state. Instead of making one of the existing twenty-two states neutral to slavery they accepted Maine as free state. The acceptance of Maine as it’s own state did not occur until 1820, but the addition of it did even the amount of slave states and free states to twelve and twelve. The Missouri Compromise did not only ban slavery from Maine and allow s...

    Read More

  • Sectionalism Versus Nationalism and the Era of Good Feelings

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

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

    2033 Words  | 5 Pages

    As the country began to grow and expand we continued to see disagreements between the North and South; the Missouri Territory applied for statehood the South wanted them admitted as a slave state and the North as a free state. Henry Clay eventually came up with the Missouri Compromise, making Missouri a slave state and making Maine it’s own state entering the union as a free state. After this compromise any state admitted to the union south of the 36° 30’ latitude would be a slave state and a state north of it would be free. The country was very much sectionalized during this time. Thomas Jefferson felt this was a threat to the Union. In 1821, he wrote, ”All, I fear, do not see the speck on our horizon which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between the different portions of our confederacy is such...

    Read More

  • Why Did The South Secede In 1860 Research Paper

    1422 Words  | 3 Pages

    Geographically, North and South were very different places. The pastures of New England were similar to those found in England, suitable for a variety of uses. Hot Southern prairie lands were perfect for cotton growing, a lucrative business at this time. Following the invention of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin, the South became increasingly dependent on this crop, and an entire society grew out of it. The society was one of wealthy planters, who led a life similar to the landed gentry of England, controlling politics and society of the day. In the fields laboured Negro slaves, usually only a handful per plantation, though larger farms were occasionally seen. In addition, there lived poor whites, tenant farmers or smallholders, who eked out a living from the land. This contrasted sharply with Northern society, where industrialisation flourished, creating wealthy entrepreneurs and employing cheap immigrant labour. Given the localised nature of media, and difficulties of transport two cultures grew up in the same nation, remarkably different and often suspicious of one another.

    Read More

  • Events that Led to the Civil War

    1792 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the south, cotton was becoming a huge success for the southern farmer. Cotton, being a very laborious crop, required the ownership of many slaves per plantation. Unlike the immigrants of the north, slaves were property. Slaves were also much less of a profit. When a slave became ill he could not simply be replaced, he needed to be cared for, after all, this was the plantation owners property. On the other hand in the north if a worker became to ill to work, there were several immigrants waiting for the job.

    Read More

  • Sectionalism In The United States:

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    The most important difference between the north and south was the issue of slavery. The South was primarily agricultural, and the southern economy was based upon the existence of large family farms known as plantations. The plantation economy relied on cheap labor in the form of slaves to produce tobacco and cotton. Farmers on the plantation did not do the work themselves; they needed slaves in order to make the largest amount of money possible. The North, however, was primarily industrial in nature. The North believed that all men should be able to work and support themselves and their families, regardless of color. They also felt that if a man were happy doing his job, then he would be more productive. Therefore, both he and the business would make more money.

    Read More

  • The Differences Between North And South

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Additionally, the majority of states had conflicts between slavery in their territory, one of them dealt with missouri. Missouri applied for admission into the Union as a slave state; this became a problem because missouri ruined the balance for free slaves and slave states. The northern states wanted to ban slavery from occurring in missouri because the unbalanced situation it put towards the other states. In response, the southern states declared how congress doesn’t have the power to ban slavery in missouri. However, Henry Clay offers a solution, the missouri compromise of 1820. Missouri admitted as slave state and Maine becomes a free slave state. Slavery is banned in Louisiana creating a 36 30 line in missouri’s southern border; this maintained the balance in the U.S senate.

    Read More

  • The End Of The Antebellum Era

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    Near the end of the Antebellum Era, tensions and sectionalism increased as the states argued over what was constitutional. The South had later seceded from the United States and had become the Confederacy of America while the North had remained as the Union. The South had fully supported states’ rights while the north had strongly disapproved it. However, westward expansion, southern anger with the abolitionists, and the secession of the South that had destroyed the feeling of unity in the country because of the disagreement over slavery had been the main factors to the cause of the Civil War. Therefore, since slavery was the primary reason for the discontent in the country, it had been the primary cause of the Civil War.

    Read More

  • Who Was To Blame For The Civil War

    886 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Union is to blame for the civil war, particularly the northern states because the federal union’s goal was to not promote conformity, but to permit diversity within the orderly confines of any socialized community (Niven 311). The union could easily be considered a haven for all types of people, not just slaves. From 1830 until 1860, relatively few immigrants settled in the South (Meyers). The Northern states had a different vision of what they wanted America to be and strongly opposed how the South ran things. The southern states thrived off slavery and is mainly how people made a living in that region. Slavery is the cornerstone of a social order that protected individual liberty and equality for the white population in the south (Niven 311). Meaning that the North had way more resources, workers, and support in comparison to the South, so slavery was a way for the Southern states to at least stay relevant in the United States of America. The North’s feelings about how slavery was tearing the country and the union apart was the spark for the Civil War.

    Read More

  • The Road to the American Civil War

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    The North and South were forming completely different economies, and therefore completely different geographies, from one another during the period of the Industrial Revolution and right before the Civil War. The North’s economy was based mainly upon industrialization from the formation of the American System, which was producing large quantities of goods in factories. The North was becoming much more urbanized due to factories being located in cities, near the major railroad systems for transportation of the goods, along with the movement of large groups of factory workers to the cities to be closer to their jobs. With the North’s increased rate of job opportunities, many different people of different ethnic groups and classes ended up working together. This ignited the demise of the North’s social order. The South was not as rapidly urbanizing as the North, and therefore social order was still in existence; the South’s economy was based upon the production of cotton after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Large cotton plantations’ production made up the bulk of America’s...

    Read More

  • Why Did The Missouri Compromise?

    428 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Missouri Compromise was a plan proposed by Senator Jesse Thomas to admit Missouri as a slave state. This compromise also established a line between the North and South for where slavery could take place, and where it could not, besides in Missouri. Up to 1820, all states, whether free or slave, had to be admitted to the Union as pairs so the Senate would stay equal. When Missouri applied for admittance to the Union, there were no other states to pair it with at the time. With a slavtion population at over 10,000 people, John Tallmadge from New York proposed an idea to make Missouri a semi-free state. Meaning, the importation of new slaves would be prohibited, adult slaves would be in bondage, and children would be freed at age 25. This

    Read More

  • The Missouri Compromise: Political And Sectional Rivalry

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Missouri Compromise was established by Congress to ease political and sectional rivalries. These rivalries started because in late 1819, Missouri requested to become a slave state. During this time the U.S. had 22 states, which had been evenly divided between free and slave. The debate for Missouri’s admission started in December of 1819 and ended in March of 1820. Senator Rufus King of New York and many Northerners believed that Congress had the power to forbid slavery in a new state.

    Read More

  • Political Differences Between The North And South States

    336 Words  | 1 Pages

    The North and South states developed overtime with extremely different views and ways of life. The South’s economy relied heavily on agriculture while the North became more and more industrialized. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed causing certain events/compromises to happen across the nation, eventually forcing the south to secede and sparked the American Civil War.

    Read More

  • Louisiana Purchase Conflicts

    674 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1819, Missouri desired to be a slave state, however, the Northern Senate overruled and wanted Missouri to be a free state. Since the balance of states would be unequal due to the number of states. In 1820, Maine, which was once part of Massachusetts, became a free state and Missouri became a slave state. Also, the compromise included that north of Missouri would be free states and south of Missouri allowed slavery (36'30). The Missouri Compromise helped push back the conflict of slavery a bit, and kept the balance of the North and South interim. Moreover, economically, the government tries to even out the issues of profit without trying to overwhelm the

    Read More

More about Slavery Was Only Partially the Reason For The Hostility Between The North And The South

Open Document