The expansion of slavery divided politicians, after the victory with Mexico it renewed a problem over the expansion of slavery. Friction between the North and South began to heat up after the war and soon became difficult to manage toward the end of the 1850’s. The war would impair the Unions strength by cutting through the legislative compromises. The South used political power in a that would not protect minority’s interest called, “Slave Power” to use the Federal government to protect and stretch slavery to other locations.
The challenge would be to decide whether the new territories would be slavery areas or not. Tensions were high over the expansion of slavery. Politicians did not deal impartially with the tensions, and the decisions were made based on the interests of the political parties. Aftermath, the decisions led to conflicts, inflame debates, political divisions, and the emergence of new political parties. In this conflictual moment lived between the Northerners (abolitionists) and the Southerners (pro-slavery), a fact in 1857 disheartened the abolitionists by the end of the
In The Fate Of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, And The Coming Of The Civil War, Michael F. Holt effectively shows how the Civil War was caused by partisan politics and the slavery extension issue. The decisions made by northern and southern politicians from 1844 to 1861 in relation to the slavery extension issue caused the Civil War. I accept Holt’s thesis and believe that he makes a believable case. His book convinced me that foolish, selfish, and deceptive politicians made decisions that caused frustration in the lives of northern and southern Americans, which created an environment prone to civil war. It was not a disagreement over slavery itself, rather a disagreement over whether expansion into new territories would involve slavery.
During the 19th century the South and the North began to debate within each other as slavery was starting to become a national issue. The South was unified following the institution of slavery as it was vital to their economic success and the North was anti-slavery. The Civil War was inevitable becoming the climax to a growing tension between both the South and North in the act of failed Compromises and differences. The Missouri Compromise, The Act of 1850, and The Kansas-Nebraska Act hold large responsibility as causes for the Civil War considering none completely stopped the war and were merely postponed it.
“Our country is a theater which exhibits in full operation two radically different political systems—the one resting on the basis of servile or slave labor, and the other on the basis of voluntary labor of freemen” (Seward page 1). The politicians of the North and South were not able to compromise about slavery expansion after 1850 because the nation was not unified but split or shattered rather into many different fragments. The North and Midwest mainly favored free labor while the South opted for slavery expansion. Progression through conflict was made prior to the 1850’s. Acts which stabilized the country were formed prior to the year of eighteen-fifty. The destruction of progress in the United States unfolded rapidly over the course of
However it intensified the larger regional conflict. The North got the notion that the south not only did not have any desire for slavery to end, but wanted to expand it. Where as the South believe grew that the North was using slavery as a cover for which they could resurrect the Federalist Party and strengthen the government at the expense of states’
By the start of the Civil War, the North and the South had developed into two extremely different sections. There were opposing economic points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. Each one tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though the Union was kept together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The different paths taken in the economic development of the North and South combined with the South’s slave based economy being threatened by the North contributed heavily to the development of the Civil War.
Between 1840 and 1860 many political issues, debates, and actions were inflamed by the presence of slavery. As America grew, both in population and in size, the South wanted more slave states and the North wanted more free states to increase their hold in politics and sway decisions in favor of what put them in a position for the greatest success. One important act that provoked the slavery dominated political world
Slavery was not the one and only factor that influenced the tension of both sides. It was nonetheless the strongest factor that caused the most violent conflicts of all time. The dependency of the south on slavery conflicted the north’s view which then resulted to their lack of voice in the government. This misery affected the nation negatively as it brought deaths and destruction. Despite the misery of the Civil war, this initiated the plan to rebuild america with both sides uniting and slavery effectively
Discuss the various compromises that attempted to resolve the conflicts over the expansion of slavery into new territories. In what ways were they successful? Why, ultimately, did these compromises fail? (5 points)
During the 19th century, so known “peculiar institution” of slavery dominated labor systems of the American South, also dominated most production in the US and led to a boost of the economy of the New Republic. By the 1850 's, US had become a country segregated into two regional identities, known as the Slave South and the Free North. While the South maintained a pro-slavery identity that supported and protected the expansion of slavery westward, the North largely held abolitionist views and opposed the slavery’s westward expansion. Until the 1850 's the nation uncertainly balanced the slavery subject between the two opponents. However, the acquisition of the Louisiana territories in 1803 by the Jefferson administration doubled the size of the US and the victory in the Mexican-American War extended the territory to the Pacific which quadrupled the area of the US. Ultimately, the territorial expansion led to the spread of slavery. In this essay, I will describe some of the reasons for the expansion of slavery including its influence in national politics, and consequences such as political debates and crises of 1850’s.
Cotton was the king of the South. It was bringing in large amounts of money as the textile industry in the North grew. Slavery was vital to the economic well-being of the South, and when the North began to question the “peculiar institution” of the South the wall of civility between the two sectionalized areas began to crumble. Due to the growing issue of slavery in the 1850s, the United States of America was in a state of total disarray and turmoil. The tension that had always existed between the North and South over the matter of slavery was no longer ignorable. As the United States expanded to the West, the status of slavery in the new states erupted in a violence that could no longer be controlled by sectionalism. The peace treaties that had worked in the past became Band-Aids over stab wounds. Southern states began to leave the United States of America to form the Confederate States of America and war was declared as the South fired onto the forts of the North. The Civil War was caused directly by the issue of slavery; the fugitive slave act in the Compromise of 1850, Dred Scott v. Sandford, and Bleeding Kansas prove that slavery was the key factor in the eruption of the nation.
The added territories gained from the war with Mexico caused the controversy over the question of slavery between the North and the South. Following the Mexican War there were bitter debates in Congress, in state legislatures
Between Constitutional ratification and southern secession, the United States increasingly developed sectional tensions between North and South. Regional differences and territorial expansion created the conflict of interests between the states. Proslavery southern and antislavery northern states envisioned their economical and political future in different ways. The question of slavery during the westward expansion was decisive for politics of both sides because more slave states would create voting advantages for the slaveholding states in the Congress. Northwestern territories were occupied by the new settlers from New England who established urbanized culture and infrastructure in Upstate New York and the Upper Northwest. New settlers in the Lower South organized farms and plantations to develop agricultural sector. Slavery was the main labor force in the South. With technological and transportation development, it became easier to migrate in the search of new territories. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the North supported industrialization and manufacturing, while the South was mostly focused on the agricultural development. The whole economy of the southern states depended largely on the cotton production. For many years, the issues of slavery, human rights and racial inequality were the main topics for discussion by people, and the expansion of borders in the beginning of the nineteenth century intensified discussions around these questions. The
For over 2,000 years, slavery has been conducted in various parts of the world. From year 1500 to year 1900, Europeans stole individuals from West Africa, West Central Africa, and Southeast Africa and shipped them to the different parts of the Atlantic. This process dehumanized them of their identity. Europeans stole husbands, wives, merchants, blacksmiths, farmers, and even children. They removed them from their homelands and gave them new names: slaves. European slaveholders never thought to take ownership of their actions by killing humans with brutality and degradation. Slave trade was considered popular in England and soon after more countries began the process of taking slaves to newly claimed territories. These countries include
In the later half of nineteenth century America, the new nation’s original ability to resolve conflict through means of peaceful compromise had vanished. Various spans of conflict such as Westward Expansion, the Market Revolution, Sectionalism, Mexican American War, the succession of the southern states and ultimately the failure of the Compromise of 1850 that made compromise between the North and the South unattainable. It was the uncompromising differences amongst the free and slave states over the power of the national government that created a divide that would result in divisional violence. From the industrialized North, the agricultural South, Jackson’s Presidency to Lincoln’s and the rise in America 's involvement in politics that followed, slavery was merely one pawn on the board during America’s transforming years that would later reveal itself to have been the vehicle for the Civil War.