Sectionalism: Who Gains the Advantage? North or South?

Social studies was 8B's first class of the first regular school day this week. As soon as I walked in, I noticed that the arrangement of the desks was still in a big rectangle. I wondered why and when class started my question was answered.
We were still doing our seminar that started on Monday, the half day. The topics were mainly of the Missouri Compromise and the Tariff of 1832, how this affected the North, South and Great Britain and who gained the upper hand because of these events. A lot of students still did not understand the aftermath of the Missouri Compromise and student Britney Byun lead the class to a more clarifying understanding of it by asking a question that most of us were thinking.
Then, the class discussed about who got the advantage of the Missouri Compromise. The class voted 10 for the South and 7 for the North. The people who voted for South supported their argument by saying that while Maine entered as a free state, balancing the number of slave states and free states, Missouri was a much larger state and therefore had more economic chances. However, Mr. Armstrong pointed out that the North's political power was
higher than the South's. If only Missouri entered the Union, the North and South's political power would be balanced, but since Maine had also joined, the power still stayed the same and North still had the upper hand. Overall, it resulted that the Missouri Compromise had given an upper hand to the North side by letting it keep its power politic wise.
Halfway through the class, Mr. Armstrong told the class to get into groups of 3~4 and create a short skit that would help the class understand the Tariff of 1832. For five minutes, each of the four groups worked on doing that and afterwards, two groups presented what they had been practicing. The first group (Eric, Harry, Andy, Billy) explained the fall of the South and Great Britain's relationship due to the Tariff of 1832 and the second group (Yoona, Deborah, Soyon, Jenny, Hee Jae) emphasized how much the South disliked the tariffs placed on the imports.
By the end of the class, I have got all of my questions answered clearly and I understood everything much better and think that the other peers of my class felt the same way.

Yoona Cha 8B