Make sure that you understand that Sectionalism, in case you missed this in class, is when people in sections of the country, in this case, North and South, identify themselves as northerners or southerners, and NOT as Americans. This is what people in America did for the election of 1860, which you can clearly see on the electoral map. This causes even more division, because the South did NOT want to live in a country with a president who wanted to abolish slavery. Sectionalism directly led to the South seceding from the Union (formally breaking away from the Union) and illegally rejecting the U.S. Constitution and federal laws. Southern states that seceded created their own state constitutions, all which continued to legalize the practice of slavery.