Reveals how the interests of the industrial North and the agricultural South (the Cotton Belt) came to clash over critical issues such as plantation slavery, and how these issues eventually led to the secession of the southern states.

Industrial North -- Agricultural South -- Slave South -- Slave life and revolt -- Abolition movement -- Argument for slavery -- Liberty and the Constitution -- Slavery and the Western territories -- Dred Scott vs. John F.A. Sandford -- House divided.