Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
was prohibited. Although most southerners had not pushed for this but felt they were obliged
toWar was inevitable in the North and South. Sectionalism had begun long before tensions regarding
slavery had begun. Many historians believe that sectionalism was caused by the differences in opinion
reagarding slavery. Both had developed very diffferently from each other. The north led production for
corn, wheat, livestock while the south produced rice, tobacco cotton. The North with factories, did not
require slaves like the south who depended on it.
The railroad transformed America's economy. The railroad made it much easier to move product that
was much larger and move product between the states. While the railroad was revolutionizing
transportation,the factories were revolutionizing production. The cotton mills which started in New
England was extended to other products. Wool was being woven in factories and producing the largest
textile mills in the country. Iron was being forged in factories as was firearms, clocks, sewing machines.
They were able to employ so many new immigrants which formed the new middle class.
The acquisiton of new territory wa a dilema for congress and increasing sectionalism. Because the
question of slavery was the main obstacle in the election of a new president. A new presidency sought
to make a compromise between the North and the South. Which always made tensions even worse.
The question wether the new territories would be free or slave states. This increased sectionalism and
who would win the presidency.
The compromise of 1850 were five separate bills passed by congress which was supposed to difuse the
political confrontation between free and slave states on the status of the new territories. It was
suppose to reduce sectional conflict. Conflict arose over the Fugitive Slave Provision. Which returned
