Sectionalism in the United States was characterized by divisions between the North and South on several issues including slavery, immigration, and religion. Significant events that deepened sectional divisions included slave revolts in the 1820s-1830s, the invention of agricultural technologies like the steel plow and cotton gin, and increasing immigration to the North. Religious denominations also split along regional lines, with Methodist and Baptist churches gaining membership in the South while unitarians who opposed slavery saw declines.