In "Varying Viewpoints," the Authors Argue That Both Northerners and Southerners

Essay

In "Varying Viewpoints," the authors argue that both northerners and southerners saw their way of life threatened by the time of the onset of the Civil War in April 1861. How and why could both northerners and southerners feel this way? Do you feel that both northerners and southerners were each justified in fearing that their different ways of life were each being threatened by crucial political, economic, and social developments in America from 1848 to 1861? How may northern and southern paranoid fears about the loss of their distinctive ways of life played a role in providing the political momentum for the drift toward disunion and ultimately the onset of the Civil War?