Political Differences Between North And South

The North and South of the united states were divided on many things prior to the Civil War. Other than the difference in geographical location, the North and South were separated by their stances on slavery, politics, and their unique economic structures. There were many differences between the exploitation of slaves, economic structure, and the political composition between the North and South, but the most important by far was the utilization of the institution of slavery used in the Southern United States.

There were many contrasting elements between the economies of the North and South. The South's economy mainly relied on and was supported by slave labour in agriculture, while the North was a free society, which enabled their industrialization. The South's economy was a supported by a big agricultural industry itself. Settlers to this region were predominantly slaveowners taking up fertile cotton land (LECTURE 13), and while the south focused on agriculture and had success largely due to the use of slave labor, the North put its efforts into production and industrialization. In 1860,

In the early 1800s, many Northerners belonged to the Whig Party, while Southerners tended towards the Democrats. By the 1850s and forward, the Whig Party had collapsed and the new Republican Party stood for the Northerners. From the division between the two parties, the South became solidly Democratic. “Most northern Whigs, augmented by thousands of disgruntled Democrats, joined a new organization, the Republican Party, dedicated to preventing the further expansion of slavery.” (LECTURE 13.) Slavery became a very apparent subject in American politics. In the 1840s, an African American abolitionist named Frederick Douglass had run to the North to become a free man, which became the catalyst of placing slavery into the “center of American