The colonial north was settled by religious separatists. They were hoping to create a new community so whole families came to the New England colonies. Most were middle to upper class citizens and were education especially in the Bible.
The colonial south was settled by investors, single men who were looking for work, and government officials. The colonies were economic companies with many indentured servants. Eventually the southern colonies also included black slaves for the labor source. To create stable settlements, young women and families were brought to the colonies.
The first stanza of the poem shows this explicitly where they say that there's an old lady on an island that has a daughter who lives on a different continent with an ocean in between. This is easily seen in the first four lines of the poem.
The Confederates were the ones who wanted to keep slavery, but the north did not want that, so the south tried to back off of the united states to become its on country, naturally the north did not want that so they went to war
