Question

Which of the following best explains how economic changes led to sectional tensions in the United States?
A. As cotton became cheaper to produce, the South began using the labor of enslaved people more, while slavery was not common in the North.
B. The Northwest Territory had always banned slavery from the moment it was created.
C. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 created Missouri as an enslaved state and Maine as a Free State.
D. The Constitution banned politicians from changing the institution of slavery until after the year 1808.

Answer 1

A.

The invention of the cotton gin and other improvements made cotton highly profitable and easier to grow, which expanded plantation agriculture and increased demand for enslaved labor in the South. Meanwhile the North industrialized and used wage labor, creating divergent economic systems and interests that heightened sectional tensions.