Analyze The Political Differences Between The North And South During The Civil War

An Unavoidable Bloodshed The civil war produced the highest death toll in any American war estimated to be an appalling 620,000 soldiers (Williams). The lives lost and atrocities committed were an inevitable part of a country bound for war due to dissonance among the people. With the invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin in the 1790s the South’s economic path of slavery was set in stone. The North, an industrial power house, conflicted with the South’s ideals for an economy based on slave work. Similarly, with the different interpretations of the Constitution that the North and South had both sides believed the Constitution backed their opinion. Political and social developments such as the Fugitive Slave Act, the publication of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry drove the North and South farther apart. The regions would try to mend their issues with huge political compromises in 1820 (Missouri Compromise) and 1850, but in the end would only further fuel the fire on unrest. The Civil War was inevitable for the United States because the differences the North and South had in political, social, and economic policies led to endlessly accumulating tension that could not be resolved until one side gave into the other’s ideals. The environmental differences in the North and South led to the two regions having very different economies.
The Northern soil was in favor of small farms and less agriculture than the South, but industry flourished throughout the North due to an abundance of natural resources (North and South). With no nearby slave trading companies either; the north was more inclined to promote free-labor. On the other hand, the Southern warm climate and soil favored large plantations to grow crops such as tobacco and cotton that required a lot of manpower to produce (North and South). Also, the slave trade was very ample around the Southern states. With places such as the West Indies harboring many slave trading companies the Southern people could obtain slaves easily to work their expansive farms and plantations. The North could not survive without its industry and the South could not survive without its agriculture, and with the North always opposing Southern ways an eruption of tension was certain. Expansion brought along a lot of controversy over whether the South could bring their slaves wherever they wanted and which new states would be slave or free. The issue over free or slave state many times was resolved by a compromise such as the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave
state:

“And be it further enacted, That the said state shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi river, on the parallel of thirty-six degrees of north latitude; thence west, along that parallel of latitude, to the St. Francois river; thence up, and following the course of that river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the parallel of latitude of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes; thence west” (Clay).