Sectionalism Outside Of Slavery

In the essay “Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America” Barbara Fields states:

As we already noted – in the 1800s expediency of slavery was disputed. While industrial North almost abandoned bondage, by the early 19th century, slavery was almost exclusively confined to the South, home to more than 90 percent of American blacks (Barney W., p. 61). Agrarian South needed free labor force in order to stimulate economic growth. In particular, whites exploited blacks in textile production. This conditioned the differences in economic and social development of the North and South, and opposing viewpoints on the social structure. “Northerners now saw slavery as a barbaric relic from the past, a barrier to secular and Christian progress that contradicted the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and degraded the free-labor aspirations of Northern society” (Barney W., p. 63).

Module 8.1). “Slavery led the South down a very different path of economic developments than

Through our current world, we are able to see how our ancestors were able to shape the world we live in today. From where state lines are drawn to the political views of that state to finally the culture of each state, can be drawn back to one issue. An issue that is still showing it face, but in a different form, today. That is the topic of slavery. The issue of slavery is an issue that shaped the development of the United States, and is the cause of the political unrest we can see in our everyday lives. Slavery has shaped the development of the American Republic by establishing clear political boundaries for each state,

One effect on the issue was that the economy in the south was fueled by cultivation of staple crops that required slaves for labor. In the South slavery wasn’t thought as an evil as in the North because to the Southerners defense the slaves in their opinion were treaty in contrast to workers in England and peasants that were Irish, also the end of slave trade brought higher value to the slaves causing their owners to be less harsh because they were more valuable. Although slavery fueled the economy in the South it was not the same in the North therefore there was no complete dire need for slavery, and although the slaves probably weren’t treated as bad as the north had thought they still saw it as

"The Anglo-American debate sharpened the desire of many Northerners to free themselves from the guilt of American slavery by sectionalizing or removing it…some Southern whites took the defense of slavery as a positive good. Slavery’s appearance on the Atlantic stage helped to shape America’s Domestic dispute over the issue” (Mason, 2006).

Africans were always seen as slaves rather than free people. It came to a point were generation from generation, people with African ancestry were legally enslaved for life. European colonists’ even committed to legalizing enslavement of hundreds and thousands of people, but it led to Africans being slaves based on race. Slavery was a big part in Virginia and South Carolina. The history of slavery in Virginia first appeared in 1619 where the Africans were indentured servants. As for South Carolina, majority of their population were African Americans. 65% of their population of about 18,000 people were African American slaves. Upon the social, economic and political development of slavery in Virginia and South Carolina, it impacted their race, class and gender.

The 1850s were believed to be a period of compromise to prevent Southern secession from the Union. Instead, it brought more divisions along sectional lines, Northern Democrats and Northern Whigs (free-states) against the Southern Democrats and Southern Whigs (slave states). David M. Potter’s book Impending Crisis provides evidence of sectionalism between free and slave states. Potter contends that during the expansionist period of the 1840s the country was experiencing a growth of American nationalism, but “the emergence of the sectionalism which almost destroyed the nation was symbolized by an amendment to an appropriation bill which was never enacted.” For the next fifteen years the Wilmot Proviso (1846) and the issue of slavery would become “a catalyst of all sectional antagonisms, political, economic, and cultural…opened the floodgates of sectionalism, for now all the pent-up moral indignation which had been walled in by the constitutional inhibition could be vented into the territorial question.”

Sectionalism divided the country into two main regions North and South. There were many reasons for sectionalism such as life style, beliefs, and economics,but the main cause for sectionalism was the debate over slavery. Sectionalism can be seen through articles such as the Wilmot Proviso written by Wilmot argued against slavery in the newly acquired territory from Mexico. This angered Southerners as slavery was a main source of a labor for them and they wanted slavery in the newly acquired territories. Also this effects beyond this time period dealing with sectionalism and Manifest Destiny can be seen through the Compromise of 1850 to help deal with slavery and newly acquired land. Sectionalism was mainly caused by the U.S. dividing on whether new territories should allow slavery or not. As Andrew Jackson said, “Manifest Destiny expanded the area of freedom” but this was debated through the issue of slavery. The issue of slavery was turned over to Congress which became dead locked on the decision of where to allow slavery and how to what extent. Also sectionalism can be seen through tariffs that were placed on Southern goods like cotton which made it harder to export slowly damaging there economy and creating more intense sectionalism. Also relationships with forge in nation heated up over the debate of the Oregon Territory. Overall sectionalism was a major issue dividing the nation mainly on whether slavery should be allowed in newly acquired territories from Manifest

From 1820 to 1850, Sectionalism in America increased due to differences in regional economies, westward expansion, and growing abolitionism. These three clauses were the reasons there were two major sections in the United States back in this time period. There was the rich, wealthy, business owners and entrepreneurs and the poor, slave and labor workers. Sectionalism defined these two people groups. From 1820 to 1850 there were major differences in the Northern and Southern regions of America.

As I read Chapter sixteen, I came to the discovery that the South’s opposition to reconstruction was similar to a modern day issue. The Supreme Court had ruled same sex marriage legal all over America this past June. Abraham Lincoln, like the general public today, wanted change and wanted it quickly. There were of course those who opposed, also known as the South. I noticed the South today has not changed much since then, because they both were and

The narrative pointed out the North’s faults in that they decided to ignore the problem in the South, even after they ruled that they wouldn’t take part in slavery themselves. Furthermore, the South not only kept slavery, but also treated slaves as if they were animals. The ways Douglass expressed all of the things that were going on on the plantations showed everything wrong with the institution, from the whippings, to the slaves’ lack of food, clothing, and proper care. Regardless of whether the North took part in slavery or not, the fact that they stood idly by and allowed it to happen for as long as they did in the South proved that they didn’t see the abolishment of slavery as a priority. Consequently, they directly demonstrated the lack of morality throughout the United States during this time in the country’s history, and together created a path of hardship for millions of Americans for hundreds of years to

Everybody has something they feel that makes their lives easier, something a person becomes so accustomed to they could not live without it. This is what African slaves were to the Southern colonists. Slavery was a huge factor in the Southerner’s lives. Originally the colonists used indentured servants to work in their homes and on their plantations. This situation was not ideal because the Southern farmers wanted more control over their workers (orange). Virginian farmers heard about the success of slavery in the Caribbean and thought it would be a good solution to their problems (blue). The southern colonists had a very different way of earning a living than in the north. They needed people to work through “the harsh realities of a

The decline of slavery in the upper South in the early 19th century can be identified as a profound change which would contribute to the eventual division of the nation. After 1830, the pattern of regional slavery in the South experienced great variations, such that the upper South gradually declined ties with slavery while the lower South distinctively became identified with it. This profound change was brought on by a shift in utilizing free labor rather than slavery to drive economic production in the upper South (Goldfield et. al, p. 285). The climate and geography in states of the upper South overtime proved less

These sources help us understand slavery and its centrality to American history and capitalism by teaching us that plantation owners hired overseers to watch over slaves to make sure they were doing what they were told, otherwise they were whipped until they got back to it. Any slaves that did not work hard enough, refused to do something, or did something they were not supposed to had punishments to come. Owners could do what they wanted, because slaves were thought of as property and nothing more. Although slave owners tried to destroy the salves hope, they never gave up their fight for freedom. The slaves were actually pretty clever with some of the things they would do to resist the control that was placed over them. We can learn that the