Assess the reasons why Northern hostility towards the South grew in the years 1850–1861.

It can be argued that the growing Northern disdain for the South in this period is perfectly embodied by the rising protest of slavery in America. An earlier victory against the Mexicans had allowed the country to continue growing, and as each new state was inducted, both the North and South stressed the state's right to be a slave or free state. The Compromise of 1850 ruled California as a free state, but at the same time through the Fugitive Slave Act compelled Northerners to return any runaway slaves back to where they had escaped from - which may have caused many Northerners to question the morality of the slave trade - what would conditions have been like in order to force a slave to run away?
The fight for states' rights reached a head in the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, and Stephen A. Douglas' implementation of Popular Sovereignty, which gave newly-admitted states the right to vote for the implementation of slavery within their borders. By giving the power to the people, Douglas simply added increased tension between the North and South, as their differences in ideas became more apparent, especially in 'Bleeding Kansas', in which residents from other states flooded into Kansas' borders in order to tip the decision of slavery in their favour. This led to a significant amount of bloodshed that would only pave the way for more in the Civil War.