Explain why the South began to feel threatened and go on the defensive in the 1820s and 1830s.

The South began to feel threatened and go on the defensive in the 1820s and 1830s due to the growing abolitionist movement in the North and Europe. As northern states and European nations abolished slavery, the slaveholding class of the South began to fear that public opinion was turning against its “peculiar institution”. The South also developed a new and aggressive sense of “nationalism” that was rooted in its sense of distinctiveness and its perception that it was ringed by enemies`

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