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Effects Of The 1850's To 1860

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The 1850’s to 1860’s was a crucial decade that had detrimental effects on the unity of the country. Many events agitated and aroused secession of the South from the North and divided the country in two. The country’s highly divided views between the Northerners and Southerners could no longer be mended, and Southern states could only see secession as the most viable option. The greatest controversy that ruptured the unity of the country were the opposing views on slavery; the events that occurred in this decade, as well as the fear that the Southerners had toward the potential abolition of slavery in America was enough for them to leave the union and is what lead to the bloody battle of the Civil War. As America continued to advance and flourish geographically and economically, the country began dividing itself between Southern states that supported and relied heavily on slave labor, and Northern states that were more opposed to slavery. With cotton being a …show more content…

A major event that occured was during the perplexing times of the Mexican-American war when David Wilmot attached an amendment to a bill that was proposed to Congress, by Polk, to raise money for the war: this amendment was the Wilmot Proviso, which stated that any new territory gained in war was to be made free soil and slavery was not allowed in the newly conquered territory. This affair fractured the whole political system, with Northern Democrats and Whigs being in favor of this, while Southern Democrats and Whigs voting against, creating a major sectional split and wrenching the system by no longer holding its place as partisan; moreover, the country split between pro and anti slavery. With the Wilmot Proviso creating friction between the country, the Compromise of 1850, which was an attempt to calm the agitation from both the North and the South, was an attempt to paper over the

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