they were physically unable to grow at the same rate the North did. The amount of railroads throughout the North, shown in Document 1, is much greater than that of the railroads in the South. Discussions regarding the Transcontinental Railroad flared up throughout the course of the Kansas Nebraska Act One of the largest conflicting ideas between the North and the South was slavery.
Peculiar institution, as it was called, formed the biggest disconnect between the nations. Not only did the discussion of slavery bring up whether it was moral or not, it also brought up a lot of conflict regarding whether new states would be free or slave states. Southerners believed slavery was morally correct, that God created African Americans so that they could work for whites. The population of slaves in the South composed a very large part of the total Southern population while the amount of slaves in the North was a very small piece of the North’s total population. The Missouri Compromise, created in 1820, regulated slavery in the United States. All territory above the parallel 36°30′ would be a free state while everything south of the parallel would be slave states. This Compromise was repealed during the passing of the Kansas Nebraska Act. The Kansas Nebraska Act entailed stats being able to decide whether they would allow slavery or be free states. The passing of this act caused further conflict between those for and against slavery leading to Bleeding Kansas, and ultimately the Civil
War. Before Lincoln even came into office, several states had already seceded from the North. During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln was characterized as someone very supportive of free blacks and equal rights. This false characterization along with other discrepancies between the Southern view of the North also lead to further secular conflict. John Brown, leading the attack on Harper’s Ferry was seen in the Southerners minds as a serious representation of the Republicans.
Further misconception of the South was that slavery was not bad in any way can be found in
To sum up, the increasing amounts of conflicting beliefs between the North and the South conclusively caused the Civil War.