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The Fugitive Slave Clause was a part of the Constitution in 1787. This clause stated that the owner of a slave could regulate, control, or restrain the fugitive in any state, despite state laws. This pleased many Southerners because they were able to recollect their slaves if they ran away. However, Northerners did not support this clause because they were anti-slavery and did not want to support the capturing of fugitives. This is rated a 3 because it was the starting spark of sectionalism in the United States. The states were divided over the matter of slavery, which was not resolved and only kicked down the road with growing regional tension between the North and the South.
Sources:
Constitution.Congress

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The Missouri Compromise was passed to maintain the balance between slave and free states when Missouri wanted to join the Union. Missouri came in as a slave state and Maine would come in as a free state under this Compromise which was proposed by Henry Clay. The Compromise also drew a 36° 30´ latitude line that declared that all of the land north of this line in the Louisiana Territory prohibited slavery. This law pushed off the matter of slavery and kept the majority of the U.S. content however, the Kansas-Nebraska Act deemed this unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision. This is rated a 4 because this Missouri line pushed off the debate of slavery and created a line that sectionalized the country on the matter of slavery.
Sources:
The Library of Congress

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The Compromise of 1850 consisted of 5 parts that were passed individually. This included California entering as a free state, popular Sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico, the slave trade being abolished in D.C., Texas giving up claims to New Mexico for $10 million with the Fed government assuming Texas' debt, and the Fugitive Slave Act must be enforced by the federal government. This event is 3 because the North wanted to undermine the Fugitive Slave Act as they did not want to enforce it and support slavery in the United States. This increased sectionalism because it led the North to pass Personal Liberty Laws that stated they did not have to imprison fugitives and were guaranteed trial by jury. Overall, this made the South and the North frustrated with each other and the lack of cooperation.
Sources:
The Library of Congress

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, stated that the citizens in the Kansas and Nebraska territories would use popular sovereignty to decide if slavery would be prohibited or not. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise because it allowed the option of slavery in territories that were North of the 36° 30´ which infuriated the Northern abolitionists. This event is rated a 4 because with the North enraged at the South, following the Kansas- Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas occurred which demonstrated the vast sectional divide between the North and the South because of slavery.
Sources:
U.S. Senate

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The election of Abraham Lincoln after the Election of 1860 was extremely controversial and sectionalized the Union for the final time before the Civil War. After Lincoln won the election, the Southerners feared that Lincoln was a radical abolitionist who was going to abolish slavery. However, Lincoln attempted to ease the South and stated that he was only going to prevent it from extending West and leave it alone where it was. This did not stop many Southern states including South Carolina to succeed in December of 1860 and establish the Confederate States of America. This event is rated a 5 because it was the final sectional factor that pushed the Union and the Confederate States of America to a civil war. Many of the southern states were succeeding because of their fear of the abolition of slavery further dividing the country.
Sources:
Britannica

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Although the Mexican-American War in 1848 was a starting spark of sectionalism in the United States, the Kansas-Nebraska Act made the conflict between the North and the South irreconcilable because it led to violent events in Bleeding Kansas and in the House of Representatives.

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The Fugitive Slave Act played an instrumental role at the beginning of sectionalism by being the starting spark. In Massachusetts 1846, David Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax because it was going to support the Mexican-American war. He was then jailed and later gave a speech titled “Resistance to Civil Government". This demonstrates how people in the North felt about the Southerners and their decisions towards sacrificing lives for slavery.

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The Kansas-Nebraska act made the conflict between the North and South irreversible because it led to bloody events in Kansas. In 1856, John Brown and a couple of his sons believed they were chosen by God to pursue an anti-slavery crusade that would later be known as the Pottawatomie Massacre. John Brown and his sons attacked Southern men in their beds because Brown believed that slavery was unethical and needed to be abolished. The Southerners saw him as a terrorist whereas the Northern abolitionists saw him as a hero. This divide in options continued the sectionalism of the Union.

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After the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the brutal events following Bleeding Kansas, these disputes continued in pollical environments. In May of 1856, Representative Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was beaten with a cane by Representative Preston Brooks after delivering the “The Crimes Against Kansas” speech. The speech was in opposition to Southerners and their decisions regarding slavery, which provoked Representative Brooks of South Carolina to attack. This further demonstrates not only the social and physical sectionalism but also the pollical divide that torn the Union into two.