History

These differences were set aside to fight a war for their freedom. The Revolutionary War united the North and South into one for a brief time. The regions had different economic means, but both regions thought of slavery as evil. Daniel Webster said of slavery that, "it will be found, sir, that there was no great diversity of opinion between the North and the South upon the subject of slavery; and it will be found that both parts of the country held it equally an evil- a moral and political evil"(Webster 249). The majority of men in the South thought of slavery as an evil and the issue of slavery could have been ended if the plantation owners had not discovered the crop that made slave labor the main force behind the South-cotton. Cotton became the leading crop of the South and because of the huge amounts of labor required during harvesting, plantation owners used free slave labor. After slave labor became driving force of the Southern economy, the North grew against slavery and the South obviously grew for it.
             The social structure of the two regions was very different in the colonial period. The middle class artisans were the majority in the urban centers of the North. The gap between rich and poor was smaller than the South. Women helped run their husband's shops and things were more equal. In the South, the plantation economy created a huge gap between the rich and poor. Plantation owners showed their wealth by land, material possessions and slaves. Upper class women didn't have to work and if they did, then the family's social status was dropped. .
             In the political system of the early United States, there was a balance of political power between the North and the South. Sectional populations were almost equal, which meant a balance in the House of Representatives. Free and slave states were also equal which meant a balance in the Senate. The government could pass laws that only both sides agreed on which meant that slavery was not an issue in Congress before the 19th Century.