by Author Name Withheld 234

Created on: December 17, 2008

The United States Civil War attempted to settle the rising conflicts between the North and the South that had been boiling over for decades. It was not until the 1850 is that America felt the economic, social, and political differences between the Northern and Southern hemispheres of the country. The North and South developed different social values, means of living, and political parties. The canyon between the North and the South continued to grow. Although the aforementioned factors played a part in the development of the war, it was the impact of slavery ON those factors that deepened the separation. The social and economic differences between the North and the South set the stage for war, but it was the impact of slavery on the political realm during the 1850's which led to the Civil War.

Economically and socially, the North and the South were like night and day. The South relied on the cultivation of cotton, while the North was driven by industrialization. The separation went further; the North did not rely on slavery like the South. The South's cotton conglomerate was dependent on slavery. Thus, anything that threatened the economy was antagonized. A major difference in the economies was the views on the tariff. The North supported the tariff because it prevented cheap imports from affecting the economy. In contrast, the South opposed the tariff since the relied heavily on imports. The North and South ironically needed each other though, one needed raw materials for production and the other needed the finished product for survival of the economy as well as for their livelihoods. This meant that if one section were to stop helping the other, the whole system would fall to the ground. Socially, the rights of individuals continually spurred conflict. The North began focusing on the individual due to the influence of Transcendentalism, while the South maintained it antiquated ideologies. Slowly, these individual ideals would influence how the North and South viewed slavery in the world of politics.
Many of the political events that led to the war would attempt to push slavery into the Northern states creating a conflict between the rights of the people in North. For example, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 diminished the lines between "free" and "slave" states by requiring that the Northern half of the country to cooperate with the South in retrieving runaway slaves. The law would fine or imprison those that did not capture runaways or helped them in escaping

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