Final answer:
America had become two distinct societies by 1860, with the North focusing on industry and the market economy, and the South on slavery and plantation agriculture. Both regions desired political and economic freedoms, but slavery's role caused an ideological divide, leading to tensions and the threat of secession.
Step-by-step explanation:
By 1860, America had developed into two distinct societies: the North and the South. On one side, the Northern society was marked by a diverse economy that included manufacturing, commercial agriculture, and urbanization, fostering an environment of social mobility through small family homesteads and participation in the market economy. On the other hand, the Southern society was deeply rooted in a plantation system sustained by slavery, where elite slaveholders amassed wealth and political power, and the vision of a White man's republic was prevalent.
These differences were fueled in part by diverging interpretations of the American Revolution's legacy, varying economic systems, and contrasting societal structures based on the presence of slavery in the South versus a more industrialized and market-driven North. Despite the division, Americans across both regions shared the desire for political and economic liberties as promised by the Constitution, and both saw themselves fighting for freedom and liberty. Yet, as slavery became more entrenched in the Southern way of life, and abolitionist sentiment grew in the North, the ideological divide widened, culminating in irrepressible tensions over slavery's expansion into new territories and fueling the possibility of secession and war, as indicated by the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.