Chapter 9, Politicians Summary and Analysis

Chapter 9 is the story of rising tensions across American society that ultimately ignite mass democratic sentiment in the election of 1828. The first major controversy is the continuing fight over slavery and the extension of slavery into new territories. Since some groups want to end slavery and because Northern manufacturers are interested in restricting imports with tariffs, increasing Southern cotton production costs, the national economy begins to fracture. The South in many areas remains pre-capitalist, with a slave economy rooted in gentry that sees manual labor as beneath them. However, the North is full of Moderate Light Reformist capitalism on the one hand and antinomian democratic sentiment on the other. This democratic sentiment exists in the South in many places as well, largely among the masses of people who do not work on plantations or own slaves.

Another conflict arises...