Question 2
There were several regional differences within the South, and most of them significantly intensified the sectional feeling between the North and the South. In the South, slavery was legal, unlike the North, who carried out their activities in a more civilized manner. Therefore, the people in the North viewed the slavery act as an inhumane methodology of obtaining labour. However, the people of the South had a varied opinion of the matter. They believed that the slaves benefited significantly from the farms in the South.
Additionally, the South was lagging in many things; therefore, deeming the North as more civilized and modern. The total population of the South was almost half the population of the Northern population. Consequently, their total population consisted greatly of slaves, thereby reducing their population significantly. A lower population implied lower production rates compared to the North.
Moreover, unlike the North, the South had favourable climate and fertile soils that were suitable for agricultural practices. Therefore, the South’s economy depended on agriculture, as their land was ideal and provided a longer growing season. They planted cash crops such as cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, among others. They believed that the slaves equally benefited from the cash crops. The North was not happy about the fact that the South was making a fortune from the cash crops.
Additionally, the South was significantly slugging behind in the transportation sector. People from the South majorly depended on steamships to transport both themselves and their agricultural produce to the marketplaces. The North, on the other hand, on the positive side as far as transportation was concerned. They had railroads which covered most of their region. They, therefore, transported the industrial products to the markets with ease. Moreover, people from the South strongly advocated against high tariffs why the people of the North spotted some positive benefit from raising their tariffs. Therefore, conclusively, all these differences significantly led to sectionalism in the antebellum era.
Consequently, these differences were significantly linked to the secession debates. For example, the South’s dependence on cash crops combines with a social element referred to as the white supremacy. The social element made racial discrimination a necessary practice to enable the South to sustain itself.
Also, the people from the North advocated for the expansion of free states. Moreover, they had a varied ideological opposition to federal overreach as compared to the South. Not to forget, they based most of their arguments on slavery which was still practised in the South. On the other and, the advocates from the South claimed that the secession debates should be based on a principle and not a specific issue such as slavery.
Furthermore, the people from the South majored on the political and cultural threats they received from the North. Besides, another reason that links the regional differences in the South to secession debates was the lost course. It blamed the North entirely for the secession process.
From 1861-1862, union politics strategies significantly changed. People from the North and the South developed an ideology that military power was important in winning. Beginning with the North, they made 30 pieces of weapons for every single weapon made by the South. Consequently, the North doubled the population of its military than that of the South.
Also, the general for the union army in 1961, McClellan had a strategy for fighting a big army using a small army. He believed in the strategy of attacking simultaneously. These attacks involved the permission to the Union raiders to disrupt the South. His Eastern army would then proceed to the southern territories to fight the South and defeat the war.