Sectionalism

Name: _________________
In the early 19th century, as the United States expanded economically, each section of the
country developed its own special characteristics:
The Northeast
The South
The Northwest
Became a center of
Its dominant
Included present-day
manufacturing,
institution was
Wisconsin, Illinois,
shipping, fishing and
slavery
Indiana, Michigan,
small farms
and Ohio
Although most
Witnessed the growth
Became the nations
Southerners never
of a new class of
owned slaves, much
breadbasket
factory workers
of the regions
Its grain was shipped
economy
was
based
Factories and cities
by river and canal to
on profits from the
began to dramatically
the Northeast and
use
of
slave
labor
on
change traditional
South
large plantations,
lifestyles
Small farmers
which grew crops
predominated in this
such as cotton
area
These regional differences led to the rise of sectionalism as early as the 1820s.
Sectionalism referred to the greater loyalty many Americans felt towards their section
(North, South, or West) than towards the country as a whole. Each section wanted the
federal government to follow policies favorable to itself. These differences between sections
made a clash appear almost inevitable.
~ The Key to Understanding U.S. History and Government
Questions:
1- What happened economically in the United States by the early 19th century?
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2- Define sectionalism.
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3- State three economic characteristics of the Northeast.
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4- State three economic characteristics of the South.
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5- State three economic characteristics of the Northwest.
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6- What issue might divide the nation? ________________________________________
Analyze the following map:

State five conclusions that can be drawn from the map:

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Think about it:

As territories are added
to the Union, what issue
might prove divide
Americans, particularly
given sectional differences:
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Multiple-Choice Questions:

Which conclusion can best be drawn from the information in this chart?
(1) The Southern states led the nation in manufacturing.
(2) Manufacturing production in the Western states exceeded that of the New England
states.
(3) The Middle states led the nation in all categories related to manufacturing.
(4) The New England states depended more on agriculture than on manufacturing.
Which geographic feature connected the iron ore fields of the upper Midwest to major steel
centers?
(1) Great Lakes
(2) Gulf of Mexico
(3) Hudson River
(4) Tennessee River valley
In the late 1800s, rapid industrial development resulted in
(1) A decrease in tariff rates
(2) A decrease in population growth
(3) An increase in the rate of urbanization

(4) An increase in the price of farm products

Which term refers to the idea that settlers had the right to decide whether slavery would be
legal in their territory?
(1) Nullification
(2) Sectionalism
(3) Popular sovereignty
(4) Southern secession
The annexation of Texas and the Mexican Cession are best described as efforts by the
United States to
(1) Remove European threats
(2) Limit the spread of slavery
(3) End wars of aggression
(4) Fulfill Manifest Destiny
Quote:
Our political problem now is Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently forever
half slave, and half free? The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in his mercy,
superintend the solution.
~ Abraham Lincoln to George Robertson, August 15, 1855
1- Explain the issue concerning President Abraham Lincoln.
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2- What is the relationship between this issue and sectionalism?
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3- What was the solution?
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Reading:
How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes? This
question of English author Samuel Johnson strikes at the core of the slavery controversy in
the American quest for self-government. Americans affirmed their independence with the
ringing declaration that all men are created equal. But some of them owned African
slaves, and were unwilling to give them up as they formed new federal and state
governments. So to form a more perfect union in 1787, certain compromises were made in
the Constitution regarding slavery in hopes that they would eventually be able to wean

themselves off the peculiar institution. This settled the slavery controversy for the first
few decades of the American republic.
This situation changed with the application of Missouri for statehood in 1819. It changed
the political landscape so dramatically that when former president Thomas Jefferson heard
about the enactment of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, he wrote, This momentous
question, like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at
once as the knell of the Union.
There had always been differences between northern and southern states, the former
more commercial and the latter more agrarian in outlook and livelihood. But no difference
was so potentially divisive as the Souths insistence on the right to hold slaves and the
Norths growing aversion to it. The newly acquired territory to the West, resulting from
the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, brought the issue of the extension of slavery to a slow boil
in 1819. Both sides, North and South, were concerned about the balance of power in the
Senate being disrupted by the admission of new states carved out of the Louisiana
Territory. The legislative and rhetorical interventions of Kentucky Representative Henry
Clay, a slaveowner who worked for gradual emancipation and colonization, were crucial to
averting a sectional division of the American union.
When Maine requested admission as a free state in 1820, Congress agreed to a
compromise where Missouri was permitted to come into the union with a constitution of its
own choosing, which meant no restriction regarding slavery. In addition to Maines
admission in 1820 as a free state and Missouris eventual admission as a slave state (in
1821), Illinois Senator Jesse B. Thomas suggested that in the balance of the Louisiana
Territory north of the 3630 parallel (which ran along Missouris southern border) slavery
would be prohibited forever. The Missouri Compromise thereby maintained an equal
number of free and slaveholding states in the American union. But it proved only a
temporary settlement of the slavery controversy. Another territorial dispute, involving
Texas and Mexico, would later stoke the fires of sectional conflict over the spread of slavery
into the western territories.
But slavery in the territories was not the only issue dividing North and South. The
question of tariffs (or taxes) on foreign imports proved so volatile that one state tried to
nullify an act of Congress and threatened to secede from the Union. South Carolina saw
tariffs imposed by the national government on foreign imports not for general revenue
purposes, but to help domestic, manufacturing industries located mainly in the North. With
depressed cotton prices and reduced foreign demand for raw goods from the South, the
1828 and 1832 tariffs eventually provoked South Carolina to desperate measures.
Flags were flown at half-mast in Charleston, South Carolina, and throughout the South
there was talk of boycotting northern goods. By 1832, when Congress passed a new tariff
bill that did not lower tariff rates enough to please the southern states, talk turned openly
to nullification. South Carolina went so far as to call a state convention that declared the
Tariff Acts of 1828 and 1832 null, void, and no law, nor binding upon the state.

Whereupon President Andrew Jackson rebuked South Carolina and threatened to invade
the state. When Congress passed his 1833 Force Bill, which empowered the military to
collect the tariffs, the now Senator Henry Clay fashioned yet another compromise that
revised the tariff to South Carolinas satisfaction. This kept the tariff on the books and
South Carolina in the Union.
~ edsitement.neh
Questions:
1- What issue faced the framers of the U.S. Constitution when they wrote all men are
created equal?
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2- How did the framers of the U.S. Constitution resolve this issue?
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3- Did their resolution led to a lasting solution? Explain your answer.
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4- What was the Missouri Compromise?
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5- What other issue divided the northern and southern states?
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6- Why did northern and southern states view tariffs differently?
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7- Explain the nullification crisis.
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Thinking Question:
Compromise is generally considered a good thing. However, Mohandas K. Gandhi once
said that noncooperation with evil is a duty. How would someone like Mohandas K.
Gandhi view the Missouri Compromise? Explain your answer.
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