Issues That Divided The Nation
| Cultural | Economic | Constitutional | |
| North
|
Mainly an urban society in which people held jobs, freedom for slaves | Manufacturing region and its people favored tariffs that protected factory owners and workers from foreign competition | Strong central government, wanted the nation to stay together |
| South
|
Primarily an agricultural society in which people lived in small villages and on farms or plantations, depended on slavery | Opposed tariffs that would cause prices of manufactured goods to increase, planters concerned England might stop buying cotton from the South | State's rights important (secession) |
Study the table above. Why do you think that the north and south did not get along?
South feared that the North would take control of Congress, and Southerners began to proclaim states' rights as a means of self protection. The North believed that the nation was a union and could not be divided. While the Civil War did not begin as a war to abolish slavery, issues surrounding slavery deeply divided the nation.
An important issue separating the country related to the power of the Federal government. Southerners believed that they had the power to declare any national law illegal. Northerners believed that the national government's power was supreme over that of the states.
Southerners felt that abolition of slavery would destroy their region's economy. Northerners believed that slavery should be abolished for moral reasons.
