| A | B |
|---|
| The difficulty of removing the seeds from short-staple cotton | Long-staple cotton dominated until the invention of the cotton gin but was limited in the area in which it could grow and made it a minor crop during the Colonial Era |
| Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793 | Increased the profitability of cotton, expanded and reinvigorated slavery, and ended the Founding Fathers hopes that slavery would die out |
| The high demand for cotton from British and New England textile mills | Cotton becomes "King" in the world economy |
| The profitability of slaves and cash crops such as cotton | The South does not diversify its economy and thus has little industrialization, few major cities, and fails to attract large numbers of immigrants |
| Slavery's impact on Southern society | The South's social structure is highly stratified with a planter minority dominating, a small middle class, and poor whites are better than slaves |
| The profitability of slavery, the religious and biological justifications for slavery, paternalism, and white supremacy | Widespread acceptance of slavery among whites in the South with few abolitionists or opponents of slavery |
| Severe black codes | Few free blacks live in the South, especially in the Deep South |
| The terrain and poor soil of mountainous areas of the South | Pockets of anti-planter folks where Unionism will be strongest during the Civil War |
| The South becomes increasingly sensitive and defensive in its criticisms of slavery from outsiders | The Gag Rule |
| Slaves realizing there is virtually no chance of a successful slave rebellion but still willing to resist the system | Passive resistance such as running away, breaking tools, playing the Sambo stereotype, etc. but few large rebellions |
| The Nat Turner Rebellion (1831) | Confirmed white Southerners' greatest fears, increased patrols and slave codes, and defensiveness against the abolitionist movement |
| Whites want to assimilate their slaves and create an obedient labor force | Slaves were overwhelmingly Protestant, often worshipping with their masters |
| Whites' racial prejudices that African slaves were best suited for agriculture | Few slaves live in urban areas or worked in industry |
| Most Northerners' were alright with slavery where it existed | Northern backlash against abolitionist "trouble-makers" |
| The goals of the American Colonization Society | Failed because it was too expensive and the logistics were too difficult to transport blacks back to Africa |
| The Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) | Committed the United States and Britain to jointly suppress the African slave trade |
| William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator | Radicalized the abolitionist movement by demanding immediate and uncompensated emancipation |
| The success of the Underground Railroad and the North's personal liberty laws | The South demands a more stringent fugitive slave law |
