economic differences

Question 1

topic sentence

Answer 1

Some historians such as James McPherson argue that economic differences between the North and South were the main reason for Southern secession by the end of 1860.

Question 2

evidence 1 - industrial north and agricultural south

Answer 2

Northern and Southern economies had been developing in different ways due to their differences in geographical and industrial nature. The North was becoming increasingly more industrial, while the South was still very much dependent on the labor of enslaved people. For example, there were greater industrial developments in the North, as of around 140 000 US factories in 1850, the South was only home to 20 000 of them. This contributed to Southern secession in 1860 because with the growing difference in ecomines, came a divide in morals and beliefs between sections.

Question 3

counter analysis

Answer 3

However, Historian Alan farmer argues “both Northern and Southern whites lived in a stratified society in which there were great inequalities in status, material conditions and opportunity,” which suggests that the sections beliefs and morals were not so divided.

Question 4

evidence 2 - the tarriff

Answer 4

Furthermore, the issue of the tariff also caused a sectional divide. Southerners urged for free trade and believed that the tariff was benefiting Northern industrialists at the expense of Southern farmers. Indeed, the tariff was lowered. However, many Northerners argue that the lowered tariffs were the main reason for the collapse of the Northern economy in 1857. This led to secession as following this disaster, the Republicans incorporated calling for higher protective tariffs in their 1860 platform, after their victory, this angered Southerners as their economy was at stake, causing them to secede.

Question 5

evaluation

Answer 5

To evaluate, the economic difference between sections was a plausible reason for secession. James McPherson argues, “many antebellum Americans certainly thought that the North and South had evolved with separate societies with institutions, interests, values and ideologies so incompatible”, suggesting that their economic differences led to secession because they created a moral divide between sections.

Question 6

Analysis 1

Answer 6

Northerners were starting to believe that slave labor threatened free labor and that slavery should not be allowed to expand. This therefore prompted them to support the Republican party, an anti-slavery expansion party, which angered the South as their economy was based on slavery and ultimately led to the secession of several Southern states following the Republican victory in the 1860 Presidential Election.