Throughout the mid-nineteenth century, contentions revolving around the preservation and expansion of slavery in America developed a noticeable schism between the North and the South. The stark contrast between the two regions reflected an age of acute social, political and economic sectionalism, which would ultimately exacerbate the nation’s prevailing issues and lead to civil war. Previously, delegates had attempted to resolve disputes through diplomacy and compromise so as not to disturb the state of the Union, but these concessions failed to mitigate tensions and seemed to only engender animosity. Slavery was the great motivator when it came to Southern secession and instigated many, if not all, of the disputes between the two regions.
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Northeastern industry became integrated with Western production, forming a cohesive, and lucrative, relationship. The economic vibrancy of the North attracted European immigrants, mainly from Ireland and Germany, who supplied a cheap workforce to factory employers that outsourced the need for slavery (Laenburg). Conversely, the agrarian South depended on the production and exportation of cotton, which could only be sustained through the use of slave labor. Instead of modernizing like the North, southern aristocrats and politicians worked diligently to maintain the plantation system, which reaped an even greater profit after the introduction of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in the early-nineteenth century (Foner, 317). However, southerners were experiencing soil exhaustion and the growing scarcity of land, courtesy of the large appetite plantations held for growing crops, made people eager to establish farms in territory acquired after the Mexican War (Foner, 473). But the North had a vested economic interest in western states and opposed the presence of slavery in them because it would be too difficult to make a profit with a slave labor force as competition (Sproat). The South feared the symbiotic relationship brewing between the northern states and the newly ratified western territories. As the boundaries of America were pushed farther west, the South lobbied to introduce slave states into the Union to consolidate economic and political authority in the region and to prevent the expansion of northern spheres of influence. The distinct economic models of the North and the South fundamentally divided the nation, as both regions would attempt to undermine the other to secure their own
Northeastern industry became integrated with Western production, forming a cohesive, and lucrative, relationship. The economic vibrancy of the North attracted European immigrants, mainly from Ireland and Germany, who supplied a cheap workforce to factory employers that outsourced the need for slavery (Laenburg). Conversely, the agrarian South depended on the production and exportation of cotton, which could only be sustained through the use of slave labor. Instead of modernizing like the North, southern aristocrats and politicians worked diligently to maintain the plantation system, which reaped an even greater profit after the introduction of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in the early-nineteenth century (Foner, 317). However, southerners were experiencing soil exhaustion and the growing scarcity of land, courtesy of the large appetite plantations held for growing crops, made people eager to establish farms in territory acquired after the Mexican War (Foner, 473). But the North had a vested economic interest in western states and opposed the presence of slavery in them because it would be too difficult to make a profit with a slave labor force as competition (Sproat). The South feared the symbiotic relationship brewing between the northern states and the newly ratified western territories. As the boundaries of America were pushed farther west, the South lobbied to introduce slave states into the Union to consolidate economic and political authority in the region and to prevent the expansion of northern spheres of influence. The distinct economic models of the North and the South fundamentally divided the nation, as both regions would attempt to undermine the other to secure their own