The roots of the American Civil War begin at the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth. Slightly before either of these colonies were founded, James I in 1609 gave a single charter to two groups, one to settle what then was considered "Northern" Virginia (Plymouth Company, claiming from what today is New Jersey to Maine) and one to settle in the south (London Company, claiming from New Jersey to South Carolina.) From the very beginning of English settlement on the Atlantic seaboard regional differences quickly became apparent. The settlers for these 2 different regions were from different areas and socioeconomic classes in England. The South attracted "Gentlemen Farmers," hoping to make quick profits on tobacco. The North became a religious refuge for Puritans. The South was much more fertile than the North, and so established an agrarian economy. The North, a much shorter sail to Europe, began to build ships and establish trade and manufactures as an economic base. In time, both the North and South's economy grew; the North began to industrialize and the South expanded its agrarian output. Slavery was an outgrowth of the expanding Southern agricutural economy. Differences became pronounced as more territory became incorporated to either North or South; 1830 and 1850 saw the first of several compromises regarding slavery, but what was at the heart of the question was if two different cultures could live together under one union. When one thought the other was infringing too much upon it, war was the result.
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