Final answer:
While the North initially benefitted indirectly from slavery through industries reliant on slave-provided materials, over time, northern sentiment shifted due to the promotion of free labor values, which highlighted dignity, social mobility, and economic growth. The Republican Party and northern society began advocating for a free labor system and opposed slavery, contributing to the division between the North and South.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Northern Perspective on Slavery
Initially, the North benefited from slavery indirectly through industries such as cotton mills which profited from the raw materials produced by slave labor. However, this benefit was accompanied by ambivalence among Northern business elites who had investments in such industries. Over time, northerners increasingly embraced the philosophy of free labor, which regarded labor as the source of dignity, progress, and economic growth, contrasting sharply with the institution of slavery that they perceived as depriving both slave and free individuals of their dignity and opportunity for social mobility.
The shift toward anti-slavery sentiments in the North can be attributed to several factors. One was the belief that a free labor system allowed for greater social mobility and economic independence, aligned with the aspirations to join the middle class through hard work and frugality – values that were thought to be absent in a slave society. Additionally, the Republican Party and other northerners advocated for government promotion of free labor, but faced opposition from the Southern 'slave power' that dominated national political institutions.
Opposition to slavery in the North eventually became more pervasive, informed by the middle-class ideology that found slavery to be the antithesis of dignity and respectability, which were achieved through work. This contributed to many in the middle class becoming active in efforts to end slavery. The economic disparity between North and South due to the absence of economic benefits from slavery for the North, and the association of slavery with the lack of advancement for non-slaveholding whites, led to a growing division between the two regions.