SECTIONALISMCHAPTER 9

1830 - 1860

BY SISI STEA4/29/13AP US

OVERARCHING FOCUS/QUESTION

To what extent was sectionalism shaped by economic opportunity that then fueled regional conflicts?

THE NORTHEAST • Northern factories produced industrial and other goods that

were shipped all across the nation

• Urban cities held jobs and economic opportunities

• Immigration allowed for cheap labor, so there was no need for slavery

• Urban workers in different cities organized both unions and local political parties

• Commonwealth V. Hunt- “peaceful unions” had the right to negotiate labor contracts with employers

• 50% of all free African Americans lived in the North

THE NORTHWEST• Steel plow invented by John Deere and mechanical reaper by Cyrus

McCormick increased production and allowed for less laborers

• New cities such as Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit served as major transfer points, processing farm products for shipment to the East and also distributing manufactured goods from the East to different parts of the region.

• New surge in immigration due to the development of inexpensive and rapid ocean transportation, famines and revolutions in Europe, and the reputation of economic opportunity and political freedom

NORTHWEST CONT.• Immigrants strengthened the economy by providing cheap

labor and an increased demand for mass-produced consumer goods

• Half of all immigrants were Irish (Roman Catholic) who escaped the potato famine and gathered in the cities (1840) but faced discrimination.

• German immigrants generally moved westward where they would establish homesteads

• Nativists (Protestants) distrusted immigrants which led to riots and the organization of the American Party or?

THE SOUTH • Agriculture, the basis of the South’s economy

• Eli Whitney’s cotton gin

• Cotton boom leads to an increase in slavery and large plantations

• Which country bought the most cotton from the South?

• White society held plantation owners at the top- dominated the state legislatures of the South by enacting laws that favored the large landholders’ economic interests

• Poor whites called “hillbillies” did not own slaves but still saw them as inferior

• Education- upper class valued a college education, but for lower class, schooling beyond the elementary grades was not available and slaves were prohibited from receiving any education

• Question of slavery defined religion, Methodist and Baptist churches gained membership because they preached biblical support for slavery, but churches that challenged slavery had less membership

THE WEST• Widely undeveloped

• After Native Americans were forced out, settlers moved in

• Worked on family farms from sunrise to sunset

• Women held important jobs such as doctors, teachers and chief assistants in the fields

• Separated from the government and societal norms that ruled society in the North and South

• Problems of deforestation, soil exhaustion and animal extinction do to over hunting started to arise

SECTIONALISM• Because the south, north and west were so vastly different, they held

different values and necessities

• The South wanted slavery to fuel its cotton plantations whereas the North had many immigrants to run the factories and the West had mostly family run farms

• Each region became invested in it’s own needs creating a gap in the unity of the country

• Regions became divided over issues of slavery, tariffs and states rights

• Tariffs particularly favored the North and their manufacturing plants. By imposing a protective tariff on imports from foreign lands, the Northern manufacturers would benefit because imports from foreign nations, say Britain, were now very expensive, people would buy from the much cheaper Northern manufacturers.

EXCERPT FROM JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER’S POEM IN RESPONSE TO SOUTHERN DEMANDS FOR THE RETURN OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE (1843)

“We hear thy threats, Virginia! thy stormy words and high,

Swell harshly on the Southern winds which melt along our sky;

Yet, not one brown, hard hand foregoes its honest labor here,

No hewer of our mountain oaks suspends his axe in fear[….]

But for us and for our children, the vow which we have given

For freedom and humanity is registered in heaven;

No slave-hunt in our borders, — no pirate on our strand!

No fetters in the Bay State, —no slave upon our land!”

THOMAS R. DEW’S DEFENSE OF SLAVERY. (1832)

“When we turn to the New Testament, we find not one single

passage at all calculated to disturb the conscience of an honest

slaveholder.[…] He was born in the Roman world-a world in which

the most galling slavery existed, a thousand times more cruel

than the slavery in our own country; and yet he no where

encourages insurrection; he no where fosters discontent; but

exhorts always to implicit obedience and fidelity”

NORTH SOUTH• Economy is based on

manufacturing pro-tariff and anti-slavery.

• Do not need the cheap labor of slaves because there were many immigrants and the tariffs favored the North by making their goods cheaper

• Economy is based on the production of cotton pro-slavery and anti-tariff

• Slaves needed to work on the cotton plantations

• Many shipments of cotton to Britain and imports, tariffs would raise costs

• Thought the North was impeding on their states rights

Civil War?

Works Cited

Magee, John L. "Forcing Slavery down the Throat of a Freesoiler." Forcing Slavery down the Throat of a Freesoiler. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

<http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661578/>.

Schmalbach, John M. "Chapter 9, Sectionalism." United States History, Preparing for the Advanced Placement

Examination. By John J. Newman. New York: AMSCO, 2010. 166-83. Print.

"United States." Nullification Crisis Political Cartoon. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/113277/Cartoon-drawn-during-the-nullification-controversy-showing-the-manufacturing-North>.