Sectional Differences

Sectional Differences was between the North and the South. It started when the Civil War was beginning, in 1861. What was it like, having slavery or being a slave? I don't know obviously, but I'm sure it sucks.

There aren't that many differences when it comes down to the two. Surprising, I know. Abraham Lincoln was president at the time so slavery was no longer, allowed. Although in the South it was allowed everywhere. The North had more factories and manufacturing. The South had more farms and farming. The North had 22 full sates, while then South only had 11!

The fugitive slave law, passed in 1850, said that if slaves ran away to the North or Canada, that they should be returned to their rightful owners. The fugitive slave law was important, because the Southerners paid for the slaves, and they didn't think it was fair for them to lose their money when their slaves escaped. They also thought that slaves should be punished, because they broke the laws.

The Southerners said that slaves had to be returned, because the slaves were their property. Like other property, slaves could not be taken away from their owners. Using the Underground railroad as an escape route was against the law. It was also no longer safe for slaves to escape to the northern states, because the fugitive slave law required them to be returned to their rightful owners.

Some Northerners didn't want to give the slaves back, because they believed in individual rights. They wanted to free the slaves, but the fugitive slave law gave them no other choice. It was the law and they had to obey it.

The fugitive slave law was important in leading to the Civil War, because it caused many arguments between Northerners and Southerners. The North was angry, because the slaves could come into the free states, and still be slaves. So the free states weren't really free states anymore.

The North didn't want new states to allow slavery, but on the other hand, the South did. The North didn't want the new states to have slavery, because they wanted to be stronger. Having more slave states would make the South stronger, because slave states would have more votes in the House of Representatives. This was important to in causing the Civil War, because whenever a new state joined the United States, there would be a big argument whether that state would be a slave state or a free state.

Many things such as the fugitive slave law, arguments about whether new states should be slave states, and the differences between the North and South were all cause of the Civil war. After a lot of arguing, the South didn't want to argue with the North anymore, because they wanted to become their own nation, no matter what the North said. Then, the South decided to break away from the union.

Slavery wasn't allowed in the North, because they believed in individual rights. The South believed that it was fine to have slavery, and if that slaves were to escape and not returned to the rightful owner that the free state the slave went to would become a slave state. I thought these facts were very sad, because of the punishment they did to the slaves, and just keeping slaves and having slavery in general.