The expansion of slavery in the Western territories had created a big deal of arguments. Ever since the drafting of the Constitution in 1787, the South and North had grown further apart in terms of economy, society, and ideology. The North feared that the South would force the expansion of slavery in Western territories due to the congressional debates. In hopes of preventing a Civil War, the federal government temporarily had determined the matter with compromises, however, those compromises appeared to be unbalanced and the sectional divides between the North and South became more prominent. After the United States had gained Texas and its Western territories, the matter with extending slavery in the West had been brought up again in Congress.
Much of the disagreement between the north and south was caused by the status of slavery, particularly what would happen in expansion states. The northern states wanted to eliminate slavery from new states, and ideally they wanted no slavery in the country in general. On the other hand, southern states believed that slavery should expand with the country. For example, a man from Georgia argued that new territory should be able to have the choice as to whether or not they will have slavery. But the north, however, “insists that while the territory was partly acquired by Southern men, is partly owned by Southern men, that they shall be excluded from its soil”(Document B).
Sectionalism was a leading contributor to America’s inability to reach compromise. The North and South possessed passionate political views that differed immensely. Both the Northern and Southern states felt unheard and unconsidered. The reannexation of Texas proved to be pivotal in how close America came to going to fill out war then. Northerners were willing to take Texas as she was, sought not to change the character of her institutions and realized that slavery existed in Texas.
The founding fathers of the nation Compromised on writing the constitution, producing a union of thirteen sovereign and independent states, the structure of the legislature, the election procedure of Congressmen, the powers of each branch of government and the existence of slavery. Years down the line, however, the strength of the union almost came apart when Missouri applied for admission into the union as a slave state. The Northerners were for slavery while the Southerners were for its abolition and this was exposed quite plainly by the debates carried out on the floor of Congress. This came on the backdrop of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which saved the country from Civil war and secession but did nothing to address the issue of slavery in their midst. Between 1820 and 1850, a number of slaves revolted seeking to gain their freedom.
Geographically the United States was divided with the North being against slavery and the South supporting slavery. This division in the states had a great affect on the decision making in congress
In 1787, Rutledge stated that “the true question is whether the Southern States will or will not be changed to confederate otherwise… the Southern States will not be confederate at all”. This quote shows that the issue of slavery was a significant factor in the formation of the Constitution and that the authors were willing to compromise on the principle of equality to form a cohesive union. It is important to note that the Constitution did not explicitly mention slavery, but it did include clauses that protected the institution. The Three-Fifths Compromise, for example, counted each slaved person as the three-fifths of a person to determine representation in Congress. This compromise gave Southern states more representation in Congress, which allowed them to maintain a balance of power and protect their interests, including the continuation of
The 19th century was among the most chaotic century of American History. Significant changes that took place throughout these years have affected the United States for ages. Since the drafting of the Constitution in 1787, the north and the south had grown further apart in terms of ideologies. Fears amongst both groups were realized when the expansion of slavery into western territories entered Congressional debates. Thus, slavery became a driving force in most political controversies such as the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and Bleeding Kansas.
The North, wanting to limit slavery to the South where it currently existed and eventually abolish the labor system all together, were hesitant to allow the formation of large territories in the Southwest. The South had a fierce ambition to expand slavery into the Southwest, and the concept of Manifest Destiny played right along with their beliefs and motivation to do so. Whenever new territories were added, the North and South would begin a process to decide the fate of the newly established territories, which would lead to many compromises, such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820, The Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. All of these compromises would solve the immediate territorial disputes, but was just delaying the inevitable conflict that would become the Civil
The Southern states saw barring the practice slavery as an abuse of their constitutional rights. Southerners argued that slave labor. The Constitution was the key contributor to the nation’s wealth. Even though the Constitution did not come out and say “slavery” it provided many laws for slavery. For example, the Constitution included the 3/5 clause it gave the South a strong part in the national government.
The Nation grew increasingly divided through the mid-1800’s over the issue of slavery, to the extent that it bled into other issues, primarily as a tensioned pretense to admis-sion of new states to the Union. Presidents prior to Polk either passively or actively re-sisted the annexation of new territories or promoting statehood, recognizing the issue of slavery and probable effects of spreading or denying slavery. The North’s ideological opposition to slavery was equally as legitimate as the South’s reasoning, but with slave labor accounting for up to 50 percent of the population in the South, there was also ac-ceptance on economical basis. Vast new lands became American territory throughout this period, while other disputed lands had boundaries
The use of slaves has always been present in the world since the beginning of civilization, although the use and treatment of those slaves has differed widely through time and geographic location. Different geographies call for different types of work ranging from labor-intensive sugar cultivation and production in the tropics to household help in less agriculturally intensive areas. In addition to time and space, the mindsets and beliefs of the people in those areas affect how the slaves will be treated and how “human” those slaves will be perceived to be. In the Early Modern Era, the two main locations where slaves were used most extensively were the European dominated Americas and the Muslim Empires. The American slavery system and the
Imagine being an enslaved child in the 1800’s, tending to the animals, cleaning your owners house, and doing many light chores around the plantation. In this essay I will use two documents and my knowledge of slavery to explain the life of a child slave. The first document I chose was “A Slave Family” this document explained the basic education that a slave child received. The document states “Most colonists did not feel that slaves needed a formal education...
Yet, slavery was a huge issue that was not talked about much in the Constitution as each state still seemed very independent at this point, but now slavery was playing a key role in the representation of the congressmen and women. The Northern states believed that slaves should not count towards representation of the states as they were considered “property” of their plantation owners. The south disagreed, and the ⅗ Compromise was formed
After the Mexican-American War came to a close, the United States still continued to run into many different types of conflicts. The new Western territory (California, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona) granted by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo caused many disagreements among the North and the South. Many people suspected that the new territory would become slave states which would mean the US would have more slave states than free states. Citizens of the North argued that if the Western territory were to become slave states, it would create an unbalance between slave states and free states. Government officials were debating about whether or not slavery should be extended into those states.
The end result of the Dred Scott decision was Chief Justice Roger Taney 's decision that Congress did not possess the jurisdiction to stop slavery from spreading into other territories, even if they were considered free. Even worse, any free Black could now be allowably forced into slavery. Being forced into slavery was also seen as being beneficial to the free Blacks. Instead of reaching a decision as President Buchanan had hoped, it had started a rapid expansion of the conflict. This rapid expansion over the issue of slavery eventually led to the Civil War.
However, these differences show that the North and South were actually two distinct countries held together by one constitution. The North felt that decisions regarding slavery and its legality were entrenched in the central government while the South felt that such decision belonged to the individual states. In the times preceding the war, both sides could not reach a compromise. Bonner mentions, “Because secession and war were permitted to come, warned Russel, "We are not entitled to lay the flattering unction to our souls that the Civil War was an inevitable conflict (Bonner, 195).” Hence, these differences could only be addressed through war.