Sectionalism in The 1800s History Essay Example

It is the 1800s and many debates are going on throughout the United States about many different things causing division and tension, especially between Northern and Southern states. The Westward Expansion further divided the country as well as the many different reforms currently being instituted. These differences built up on top of each other and it eventually lead up to South Carolina along with many southern states seceding from the US, forming the CSA which is also known as the Confederate States of America. The southern states seceding from the Confederates proceeded to bomb the Union Fort Fort Sumter causing the Union to respond and declare war against the CSA. This marks the start of the American Civil War. Because of the significance of the war many influential historical figures such as Henry Clay, John C Calhoun, and President Jackson wrote about what they believed was the cause of the Civil War. After reading the papers that these notable figures wrote people can conclude that the main matter that caused the Civil War was Sectionalism. Sectionalism is the act of a person favoring their section of the country rather than doing what is best for the country as a whole. In the years leading up to the Civil, War people can see many different examples of sectionalism occurring throughout the nation. This essay explains the extent of Sectionalism being the primary cause of the Civil War.

Sectionalism has caused problems in the US for a very long time. The Southern and Northern states have always been different in many ways. The economies of these regions have been very different. The Southern states have always relied on slave labor to farm cash crops and sell them off to other countries, meanwhile, the north was way more industrial and had lots of factories with paid laborers. Because of these very drastic differences, there are bound to be many disagreements. A major example of a disagreement because of the difference between the two sides was Slavery. The North looked at slavery as something that was morally wrong and disgusting. Books were written about the horrors of slavery like Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Document 9 Harriet Beecher Stowe). The South looked at it very differently, they saw the slaves as just a source of cheap labor and a way to make money effectively. The South even took things as far as writing a similar version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin called Aunt Phillis’s Cabin (Document 14). but instead writing about how slavery was enjoyable and not that unpleasant. Because of the viewpoints of the North, they were very eager to abolish the practice of slavery but the South wasn’t. If Slavery was to be banned then this will cause the rich and powerful southern plantation owners to have to pay workers to work on their plantations without being as effective as slaves. This will also cause significant damage to the Southern economy as a whole and not only hurt the few slave owners. The South wanted their region of the country to benefit more and as a result of that was against the idea of abolishing slavery. The North wanted to defend its idea which was to abolish the act of slavery because it was wrong but the South wanted to defend its idea which was against the abolition of Slavery since their economy relied so heavily on it. People also see the divide between the two regions of the United States. In Document 10 there is a picture of a southern governor having a fight with a Northern governor because of the difference in their beliefs about slavery. This just shows how divided the country really was especially because even very civilized people that serve the US government are having a literal fistfight (Document 10). There were also many laws that were st because of the different views of slavery.  A major law was the Fugitive Slave Act which allowed plantation owners to capture slaves that have escaped. This can seem fair at first to slaves but slave owners misused this power. Instead of actually going to find an escaped slave they instead went to the North and just captured African Americans and said they were slaves. The free African Americans had no way of proving that they were not slaves and when they presented their papers that showed their freedom, which was already very rare for them to have, the people would just rip the paper up and say they didn’t have it. They were also unable to defend themselves in the legal system because they were not citizens of the US. A famous example of this is Dred Scott. Although he was a free person he was not able to defend himself in court because he was not a citizen (Robert B Taney 1857 Document 6).