Essay On How The Compromise That Led Up To The Civil War

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As time went on, the United States continually grew, economically, socially, politically, whatever it may be. The reasons behind these changes varied, but the most significant and controversial of the bunch would be the entire institution of slavery and the effect it had on the economy of this country. While the idea of slavery and everything it stood for was vile and abhorrent, the profound effect it had on the United States is undeniable. It is responsible for the large African American population we have now, it was a major factor in the Civil War, and it basically ruled American politics until it was outlawed. This is all due to the extremely rapid growth of the entire establishment of slavery, which swept over the South at an alarming …show more content…

One of the biggest issues over this was the admission of Missouri and its status as a slave state. Of course people in the South wanted another slave state admitted, but people in the North wanted it to become a free state. With this conflict something had to happen, so Henry Clay proposed the Missouri Compromise. This compromise proposed the admission of Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state and also restricted slavery north of the 36 30’ latitude. This kept the balance of the free and slave states, but appeased the people for the time being. This compromise was a victory for both sides and helped keep the institution of slavery alive and well. Slavery was able to grow and spread slightly up to the north with the Missouri Compromise eventually getting repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This allowed for more slave states past the previously established line which gave power to the anti-abolitionists. The Missouri Compromise and its eventual repeal allowed the growth of the institution of slavery to occur at a rapid pace due to the power it gave back to the people in the …show more content…

This single court case changed the course of slavery and how people felt about it forever. Dred Scott was a slave whose owner had spent time in Illinois, which was of course a free state, but they normally lived in Missouri. Scott believed that since he had spent so much time in a free state where slavery was against the law then he should have his freedom, so he sued for it. This court case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where they declined him of his freedom. They claimed his residence in a free territory did not constitute his freedom, that Congress did not have the right to prohibit slavery in any territory or state, which invalidated the Missouri Compromise, and that Mr. Dred Scott did not even have the right to sue anybody because he was not a citizen. This extremely controversial decision quite possibly altered the course of American history forever. Sectionalism was worse now than ever and the Supreme Court basically just endorsed slavery, which highly encouraged anti-abolitionists. Slavery was now an issue of secession in the South, which worried the North because of how young the country was. Overall, this court case did little to quell the issue of slavery in the United States, it just created more tension in the country, which eventually exploded four years after. The institution of slavery and its supporters in the United States grew immensely

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