The Sectional Crisis

545 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The conflict of the north and south

What issue(s) did the sectional crisis between North and South hinge on? Sectional crisis between North and South hinge on multitude of issues pertaining to slavery. The issues show that the federal government had been compromising with slavery to unite the nation. The Three-Fifths Compromise of 1787 perpetuated the tension between North and South. It is crucial to note that the compromise required “slaves” to be added to population count as “three-fifths of all other persons” (Waldstreicher). Population dictates both number of electorate voters and seats available for a state in the House of Representatives. Hence, addition of slaves to the population count allowed slave-states to dominate over the free-states. Slave-states dominated because their interests were represented more than that of free-states. This unequal representation in the federal government perpetuated the tension between the two sections. …show more content…

Expansion raised the question of whether or not to extend slavery to new territories. If slavery was not extended, then the free-states would recover the representation that they lost because of the Three-Fifths Compromise. Extension of slavery, on the other hand, would strengthen the mold of slave-state. The question of extending slavery induced tension between the two sections because both desired to have their interest overrepresented in the federal government. To reduce the tension between slave- and free-state, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was created. The compromise officially divided the nation into two sections. Territories below Missouri was declared to be slave-state, while the ones that lay above was free-state (“The American Yawp”). This division of territory is symbolic of a nation

Show More
Related

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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.

    Read More

  • Events that Led to the Civil War

    1792 Words  | 4 Pages

    The existence of slavery was the central element of the conflict of the north and south. Other problems existed that led to this succession but none were as big as the slavery issue. The only way to avoid the war was to abolish slavery, but this was not able to be done because slavery is what kept the south running. When the south seceded it was said by Abraham Lincoln that “ a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Because slavery formed two opposing societies and slavery could never be abolished, the civil war was inevitable. These were all the reasons why the south seceded from the union, this succession was eminent and there was no plausible way to avoid it.

    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

  • Differences Between the North and South that Led to the Civil War

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Southern and Northern states varied on many issues, which eventually led them to the Civil War. There were deep economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. These differences stemmed from the interpretation of the United States Constitution on both sides. In the end, all of these disagreements about the rights of states led to the Civil War. There were reasons other than slavery for the South?s secession. The manifestations of division in America were many: utopian communities, conflicts over public space, backlash against immigrants, urban riots, black protest, and Indian resistance (Norton 234). America was a divided land in need reform with the South in the most need. The South relied heavily on agriculture, as opposed to the North, which was highly populated and an industrialized society. The South grew cotton, which was its main cash crop and many Southerners knew that heavy reliance on slave labor would hurt the South eventually, but their warnings were not heeded. The South was based on a totalitarian system.

    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 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

  • Analysis Of The Irrepressible Conflict Between The North And South

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    The new territories and the discussion of whether they would be admitted to the Union free or slave-holding stirred up animosity. The Compromise of 1850 which offered stricter fugitive slave laws, admitted California as a free state, allowed slavery in Washington D.C., and allowed new territories to choose whether they wanted to be slave-holding or free was supposed to help ease tension between the North and South. Yet Southern states wanted more new territories to be slave-holders so the institution of it would continue to grow. They believed slavery was a way of life and as Larrabee said in his senate speech, “You cannot break apart this organization and this system that has intertwined itself into every social and political fiber of that great people who inhabit one-half of the Union.” (“There is a Conflict of Races”).

    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

  • Analyzing the Articles of Confederation

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Overtime, the north had to create the Three-Fifths Compromise with slaves (giving each slave three-fifths of a vote), since the South threatened to cut off the North’s food supply.

    Read More

  • The Secession Crisis

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the years leading up to the Civil War, there was great conflict throughout the United States. The North and South had come to a crossroads at which there was no turning back. The Secession Crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and the South disagreed on slavery and what states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and rose up in revolt by forming the Confederate States of America.

    Read More

  • The 1860 Presidential Election

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    The presidential elections of 1860 was one of the nation’s most memorable one. The north and the south sections of country had a completely different vision of how they envision their home land. What made this worst was that their view was completely opposite of each other. The north, mostly republican supporters, want America to be free; free of slaves and free from bondages. While on the other hand, the south supporters, mostly democratic states, wanted slavery in the country, because this is what they earned their daily living and profit from.

    Read More

  • The Civil War Was Inevitable

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    Correspondly, the senate passed the Missouri Compromise in February 1820, which allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state, making the free and slave states balanced once again. Another amendment was passed to prohibit slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern border of Missouri. This event envisioned a possible threat to the relationship between the North and South. Moreover, the United States began to believe in a manifest destiny, a god-given right to expand its territory until it had absorbed all of North America, including Canada and Mexico.... ...

    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

More about The Sectional Crisis

Open Document