Ms. Colucci 6
Social Studies Chapter 12, Lesson 2 Name _______________
Sectionalism: Thinking Questions- Go Beyond the Text
What is sectionalism?
Thinking Question
Where do you see
a type of
sectionalism alive
today?
What is Economic Sectionalism?
Thinking Question
How were the
economies of the
north and south
different?
What was the Political Sectionalism?
Thinking Question
What are some
negatives to
compromise?
What was the Social Sectionalism?
Thinking Question
Are the north and
south still
“socially”
different?
How did all of this lead to the Civil War?
Thinking Question
Do you think the
Civil War could
have been
avoided?
Ms. Colucci 6
Social Studies Chapter 12, Lesson 2 Class Reading
Directions:​
independently read the following passages and answer the
questions. Remember to mark up your text and use your reading
strategies.
As the new American nation moved into its seventh decade of
existence it faced several crisis that threatened to tear down the
very foundations on which it stood. Sectionalism plagued the land.
Instead of looking at the nation as a whole, regional separatism took
hold. Southerners, westerners and northerners began to identify
themselves regionally and not as Americans. The regional differences
that had served to build America now threatened to destroy it.
Sectionalism is the idea that your region or location is better or more
important than the nation as a whole. All in all, there are three
different types of sectionalism. There is economic, political, and
social sectionalism.
Background
When James Monroe thought about his vision of an “American
System” he saw the parts of the nation working together as a whole.
From colonial times there were differences in geography that gave
rise to ​
variations​
in culture and economy and politics. The northern
regions of the nation tended to focus on trade, shipping and
manufacturing. The southern regions of the nation tended to focus on
Ms. Colucci 6
Social Studies Chapter 12, Lesson 2 agriculture via slavery and the mid-Atlantic region blended both. As
the nation expanded westward new states like Tennessee, Kentucky
and Ohio were largely agricultural but yet still stuck to northern and
southern ways of life. These geographic and economic differences
spurned cultural differences as well. The merchants of the north
were accustomed to a faster paced lifestyle while the plantation
owners of the south played the role of the gentleman farmer. The
leisurely lifestyle of the south did not extend, however, to the
working farmhands and slaves that supported the plantation lifestyle
of the southern aristocracy.
Economic Sectionalism between the
North and South
As the different regions began to
define themselves, economic issues
came to the forefront. Wishing to
support America’s ​
domestic
manufacturing, northern politicians
endorsed a series of protective
tariffs. A tariff is a tax placed on
things brought in from other countries. Since the south had to buy
most of the things it wanted from other places, they did not like
tariffs. The first tariff passed in 1816 was relatively mild but the
second passed in 1828 was much more severe. Southern states called
it the “Tariff of Abominations” and demanded the right of
nullification (ignoring a federal law). President Andrew Jackson
Ms. Colucci 6
Social Studies Chapter 12, Lesson 2 endured a bitter conflict with his Vice President John C. Calhoun
while the Webster-Hayne debates raged in the Senate. The split over
the tariff and nullification was so fierce that it even led to a violent
attack on Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the senate.
Eventually Congress passed, and the President signed, a bill called the
Force Bill that authorized the use of the military to compel states to
pay the tariff.
The bitterest battle of all however, was fought over the issue
of slavery. Cotton was essential to the southern economy, as they
used to say; “​
cotton is king!​
.” To southerners slavery was essential in
maintaining cheap production of cotton. As cotton production grew, so
did slavery. Without slavery, many in the south felt that they would
lose lots of money and their way of life. The North, however, had no
economic need for cotton or slavery.
Political Sectionalism
The conflict of political sectionalism surrounded the creation of
new states as the United States expanded, and the role that slavery
would have in those new states. Furthermore, the north wished to
suppress slavery, while the south sought to increase the amount of
slavery in the United States. Southern states, fearing the north
would eventually try to abolish their “peculiar institution,” knew they
needed to maintain control of the Senate. In order to do so, as the
nation expanded west, the South needed to ensure that states
entered the union as slave states. The north, on the other hand,
Ms. Colucci 6
Social Studies Chapter 12, Lesson 2 wanted the opposite. When Missouri entered the Union in 1820 the
nation attempted to settle the issue with the creation of the Missouri
Compromise. The Missouri Compromise allowed the state of Missouri
to enter the Union as a slave states, and all new future states would
be either free or slave depending on how north or south they were.
The compromise, however, would not last long. When California
asked for admission as a free state in 1850 the Missouri Compromise
would have bisected the state. The Compromise of 1850 allowed
California to enter as a free state but only after allowing a popular
vote on slavery in Nevada and New Mexico. If that did not signal the
death knell for the Missouri
Compromise then the
Kansas-Nebraska Act surely did. The
act allowed for a popular vote, known
as “popular sovereignty” in the
Kansas and Nebraska territories. A
mini civil war broke out in Kansas as
pro slave supporters clashed with
“free soilers.” By the time the
Supreme Court issued its verdict in ​
Dred Scott v Sanford​
any chance
of compromise over slavery was over. Thus sectionalism, which
started as merely differences in culture, ended up being one of the
main causes of the American Civil War.
Ms. Colucci 6
Social Studies Chapter 12, Lesson 2 Social Sectionalism
The north and the south developed distinct cultures. They
spoke with different accents and had different ways of viewing the
world. People in the south lived a fairly rural way of life. It was a
slow paced way of living that was much different than the north. On
average, they had less schooling and were more likely to be poor than
people in the north. The south had particular customs which placed a
great emphasis on the relationships between men and women and their
traditional roles. Women were often put up on a pedestal as “perfect”
or “pure”.
Because slavery was such a major part of everyday life in the
south, the institution of slavery became important socially as well.
The number of slaves that you owned indicated how wealthy you were.
Therefore, not only was slavery an economic benefit to people in the
south, but it also defined how they fit into society as a whole. People
in the North, however, tended to be more educated. Since the
economy of the North was based upon manufacturing and trade,
people tended to be more likely to live in larger cities and to have
attended school for longer periods of time. People in the North
tended to view slavery as something foreign and brutal. Because of
these different attitudes and social structures, it became easy to
view people from the other region with suspicion or as less than you.
Ms. Colucci 6
Social Studies Chapter 12, Lesson 2 Because of this it became easier for many people to engage in
war with a region that was very different from themselves
1. What is sectionalism?
2. What are the three types of sectionalism?
3. How did James Monroe think of the different sections of
America?
4. Based upon the context clues, which word best describes the
meaning of “variations” in the text.?
○ Similarities
○ Differences
○ Meanings
○ Changes
○ Based upon the context clues, which word best describes
the meaning of “domestic” in the text?.
○ Family
○ Interpret
○ National
○ States
1. What is a tariff and why did the south not like them?
2. What was the major cash crop of the south?
3. Why was there constant political sectionalism in the 1800s?