Westward Expansion Dbq

After the War of 1812, America focused its attention to the discovery and settlement of the territory to the west. The reinforcement of the federal government and the movements of land speculators caused the land boom in America. Westward expansion caused a great debate and put tension in between the relationship of the American North and South.

The South exploited slavery to maintain its culture and to grow cotton on plantations. In comparison, the North thrived during the Industrial revolution, and they became the heart of industry in the U.S. The North developed into a major metropolis due to the inflow of immigrants. Therefore, with willing and cheap workforce, the North did not require slaves. With the purchase of the Louisiana territory,

the Northerners thought that a portion of the land would be forbidden to slavery, but it fell under the political control of slaveholders due to the flourishing cotton market throughout the South. “The Missouri issue increased long-simmering northern resentment over the spread of slavery and the southern dominance of national affairs under the Virginia presidents,” (Goldfield et. al, 244). The Missouri Compromise, which stated, “the Louisiana Purchase was closed to slavery in the future, except for the Arkansas Territory and what would become the Indian Territory of Oklahoma,” (245) solved the immediate problem of slavery with the Louisiana Purchase. This was a sectional compromise that permitted Missouri to the union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and it also banned slavery in the Northern territory of the Louisiana Purchase (245).
The issue of slavery came back up again when the United States entered the war with Mexico over Texas and its western territories.

David Wilmot proposed an amendment in 1846 for the Mexican war stating, “as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico… neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory,” (371). Fearful of the South coming into to much “slave power”, the Northern politicians supported Wilmot’s amendment. However, the Southern politicians complained that the act was illegal and obstructed the passing of the Wilmot Proviso. “The proviso debate sowed distrust and suspicion between northerners and southerners,” (371). In result, the amendment never passed, and the issue of slavery remained a big

debate.
In 1849 California petitioned for statehood where the slavery issue was brought back to light.

California was anti-slavery; however, the southern democrats permitted them to enter the union and disrupt the sectional stability in Congress. The Compromise of 1850 came out of this. For the North, the compromise guaranteed that California would enter the union as a free state and that the slave trade would end in the District of Colombia. For the South, the compromise granted that popular sovereignty would decide the question of slavery in Utah and New Mexico territories. It also restructured the Fugitive Slave Act and made the people from the North help imprison escaped slaves. This infuriated the North since it was a direct violation of their state laws.

Five years later in 1854, Kansas and Nebraska petitioned for statehood. The southerners opposed because the Missouri Compromise would make these two large territories free states. Congress passed the Kansas Nebraska Act to satisfy the south. The act repealed the Missouri Compromise, and allowed the people of the states to vote to determine the fate of the state. People from Missouri snuck into Kansas to vote to make the state a slave state. This caused the tension between the North and South to

explode.
The expansion of slavery caused a big dispute between the northerners and southerners. The fighting in Kansas foreshadowed the great fighting that would take place a few years later. None of the compromises that were created in the early nineteenth century settled the issue of slavery in regards to westward expansion. The compromises just curbed the issue and acted as brief relief. Also, many people believed that the compromises tended to benefit the slaves states more than the free states. The sectional rivalry between the North and South became more discrete. When the negotiations unraveled, Civil War exploded.