The Beginnings of the Sectional Crisis :: American America History

The Beginnings of the Sectional CrisisDuring the antebellum period, the North and the southern were complete opposites. This led to each side viewing itself as superlative and viewing the other as backward. Each side believed itself to be superior, in all aspects, to the other. The reasons for these opinions can be found in the different economic, social, and heathen dusts found in these two regions. The mhoern economy was primarily agricultural. This economy, same(p) many other agricultural economies, did non allow for a enormous deal of social mobility. The South also lacked factories, or much industry. However, this was non the main difference between the North and the South. Most troubling to Northerners was that the South used slaves as its main source of labor. Obviously, Northerners would be appalled by the barbarism associated with slavery, the beatings, the separation of families but they were not. Most appalling to Northerners was that slavery did not encourage soc ial mobility, education, or industrial expansion in a society. This was in direct conflict with northern views. The North had always been an mobile society. Ever since the Transportation Revolution of the early 19th century, the North progressed term the South stagnated. The North produced steel and iron while the Souths mainly produced cotton. This is not to say that the South was not an economically prosperous region, but it was retributory not built in the Norths image of industrious. The South did not attend to have a problem with the system of slavery. After all, why should they? it had been prospering for over 200 years. Instead, they saw the North as a beastly society full of the treacheries caused by capitalism. They saw factory work as wage slavery while they viewed Southern slavery as paternal and benevolent. Slavery, they contended, helped eliminate all class distinctions in Southern society. In the North, they saw, factory owners became rich while their employees lived in a state of poverty. Slavery was the bang-up unifier of Southern society. Poor Southerners also supported the peculiar institution, because it ensured that blush the poorest white man was higher than a black man was. This was why Southerners said it preserved social order. Slavery, essentially, gave poor whites someone to look knock down upon and mock. To an agrarian society the preservation of a rigid class system is of primary concern, unfortunately, this was the only way the South could preserve it was through slavery.