In the 1840s, there were three major sectional differences in economy, politics, and states’ rights between northern and southern states of the United States. One should be aware of the fact that during the given period, there were far fewer people in the South than in the North. It is due to the economic divergences between these territories, where Southerners were predominantly farmers who required large areas of land. However, the Northerners were mostly industrial people who worked and operated at factories rather than plantations. Therefore, these economic differences led to the conflict between the North and South on the issue of slavery. The key reason is that factories mostly relied on machines and other technological forms of equipment, whereas plantations required the manual labor of slaves. That is why, these areas had major confrontations on the notion of slavery, and the underlying reasons were not merely moral but also economic.
Another aspect of the sectional difference between the North and South are politics and states’ rights. The South believed that each state should be independent of the federal government, and the key decisions should be made there. However, the North adhered to the concept of the federal government being the most influential decision-maker. Therefore, the northern states sought union, whereas the southern states desired independence. All these factors led to the escalation of tensions between the given territories, which eventually resulted in the American Civil War in the 1860s. The difference in politics, states’ rights, and the economy were manifested in a single most evident issue of slavery where one side claimed that it is immoral to own another human being. Although such practice needs to be condemned, one should understand that there were both economic and political reasons for adherence to slavery.