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Explain The Main Events That Led Up To The Civil War

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In the years leading up to the Civil War, there were four main events regarding the extension of slavery in the United States. The Missouri Compromise, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, The Dred Scott Decision, and The Lincoln-Douglas Debate were all major events that may have provided a temporary solution to the problem regarding slavery, however also failed to stop the momentum towards conflict. First and foremost, the Missouri Compromise of 1819 was the first spark in the events leading to the Civil War. This major event split up the country immediately, as the compromise led to an imbalance of power between slave and free states. Prior to the Missouri Compromise, there was an equal balance of slave states and free states. There were 11 free states, and 11 slave states in the nation, and when Missouri petitioned to join the union as a slave state, this brought on great rebuttal. The …show more content…

How did the union deal with this? The solution was the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise allowed Missouri to join the union as a slave state, but would be balanced by Maine, where a part of Massachusetts would be split off, making Maine a free state. Furthermore, slavery was to be excluded from all new states in the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri. People on both the north and south saw the compromise as flawed, for multiple reasons. First off, when Henry Clay wrote the Missouri Compromise he did not take into account that because they made Missouri a slave state, it made it seem as if the entire west of the nation were to be slave states as well. The African-Americans when hearing this were absolutely outraged on both

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Southerners did not want Northerners to have more representatives, and vice versa. Then, in 1820, the Missouri Compromise allowed two states to join the nation, preserving the balance of slave holding and free states. This eased the congressional debate on slavery, until the topic of admitting four free states was introduced. Now, Southerners felt that soon they would be outnumbered, so they threatened to secede. In hopes of keeping the country together, Henry Clay devised the Compromise of 1850.

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Due to the rulings of the court, it became regarded that by banning slavery in certain territories, the Missouri Compromise was very unconstitutional due to the fact that it would be taking away the private property possessed by the slaveowners, which was against the Bill of Rights. With the compromise be rid of, slavery was allowed in any territory, which meant that all states were to be considered “slave states”. The people of the Northern states were enraged by this decision. Friction between Northerners and Southerners grew dramatically and would cause the Civil War to take place, eventually ending slavery in the United States. With that being said, the Dred Scott case decision had very much influenced the future of slavery in

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Prior to 1820 the free states and slave states were equal in number within the union. That is until 1819 came in which Missouri had requested statehood and to become part of the union. The first attempt to solve this issue of Missouri’s statehood was the Tallmadge Amendment. This amendment was proposed by James Tallmadge and had several provisions. These provisions included not allowing immigration of enslaved people into Missouri and emancipating slaves after the age of 25 but when it was sent to the house of representatives, it failed, turning it into the Missouri Deadlock.

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Additional rulings of the Supreme Court found the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional, and African Americans would never be able to be citizens of the United States. Most importantly, by citing the Missouri Compromise as being unconstitutional, it sent a message to all Americans, regardless of the slavery positioning, that Congress “had no power to ban slavery from any territory of the United States.” These comments and rulings by the court undermined other key concepts of democracy in America such as popular sovereignty, and “foreshadowed the spread of slavery throughout the West.” For northerners, this further confirmed their slave-powered conspiracies by demonstrating that even the government could not control or prevent the institution of slavery from further expanding into new

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1350 Words | 6 Pages

In 1817, the Missouri territorial assembly applied for statehood. Since it already owned three thousand slaves, it was pretty clear to them that they would join the Union as a Slave State. Northerners, or anti-slavery citizens, became anxious to this subject since it altered the balance between the amount of Free states and slave states. To alleviate things, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise in 1820 saying that Missouri passes as a slave state, meanwhile Maine passes as a Free State, so both sections would end satisfied. Also, this law prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude line and allowed it below of the line so the Senate could keep balance of power in the Union.

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So congress made a compromise, the Missouri compromise signed in 1820 - Missouri could join as a slave state and Maine had enough people to become a free state , so it did. Missouri Compromise started the outlawing of slavery in the Louisiana Territory. This also produced 2 new amendments. One was no new slaves are allowed in the state and two was all free slaves born after admission of the new

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131 Words | 1 Pages

The Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise helped resolve the issue of whether new free states would be slave states or free states. The request by slave-holding Missouri to join the union caused an angry debate that worried Jefferson, former president, and Adams, presently in Senate. Many Missouri settlers had brought enslaved African Americans into the territory with them. By 1819 Missouri had about 50,000 whites and 10,000 slaves.

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Notwithstanding the ethical issue posed by the growth of slavery, pro-slavery Missouri would give the Southern States a Congressional dominant part. Eventually, Congress came to an agreement

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This act to free slaves was estimated to helping anywhere from forty thousand to one-hundred thousand slaves reach freedom. This helped spread abolitionist feelings throughout the North, while also convincing pro-slavery southerners of the northerner’s determination to defeat the slave upholding’s in the South. As America began to grow and acquire more land the conflict over slavery grew. Missouri’s application for statehood ended in a compromise, Missouri was admitted as a slave state, and Maine was free and all western territories north of Missouri’s southern border were free soil. However, the Missouri Compromise was only a temporary plan to maintain an even balance between slave and free states.

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The North and the South had different views on slavery at the time, the South wanted to expand slavery westward while the North wanted slavery to stay put. The South felt it was a state right to expand slavery and thought it would be best for the economy if slavery continued to expand. After years of dispute, finally in 1820, a man by the name of Henry Clay led the North and South to an agreement, known today as the Missouri Compromise. Missouri ended up becoming a slave state, Maine became a free state, which created a balance in the senate. The senate required an equal number of slave states and non-slave states.

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Up until this point, the Missouri Compromise determined if states allowed slavery. However, the Kansas-Nebraska Act changed things. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, to determine the allowance of slavery, an idea known as popular sovereignty. The Kansas-Nebraska Act amplified tensions between the North and the South over the issue of slavery, contributing to the Civil War. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was highly debatable because it allowed the possibility that slavery could expand into previously free states.

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328 Words | 2 Pages

This created problems because the South saw the Missouri Compromise as a threat towards slavery. The disagreements got so bad that it began to divide the United States between the North and South. The Southerners began to start arguments to keep and defend slavery. The defenders, also known as the southerners believed if you ended slavery that it would have

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629 Words | 3 Pages

This issue was discussed in several governmental assemblies/meetings, but since it has such a big role in America’s economy, no one has done much about it. There has been many debates on whether states should be admitted as free or slave states. The government attempted to solve these conflicts by putting in place the Compromise of 1850, The Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas Nebraska Act. These acts did not fulfill to their potential and the country lead to splitting up. The seceding (southern) states joined together to form the Confederate States of America.

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As northern and southern whites differed sharply about the proper role of slavery in the west, tensions arose. Western expansion made slavery an explicit concern of national politics, considering there could be an unbalance between the slave and free states. In 1819, the entrance of Missouri threatened to unbalance America, throwing this parity in favor of slave interests. As an effort to diffuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the undecided state of Missouri, the Missouri Compromise was drafted in 1820. First, Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and the admission of Maine would be a slave state balancing America once again.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

During the 1800s, slavery had become a hot topic in the United States, even though many did not even want to have the discussion about it. However, as we gained more land in the Mexican War slavery had to be addressed because the new territories were going to create an imbalance between the free and slave states. This imbalance would favor the South more than the North and give slavery the opportunity to spread further. Northerners, of course, did not agree with the idea of slavery spreading and worked to have legislation passed to support their perspective. Still, the legislation and the courts’ decision of cases related towards this matter, such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act angered both the North and South and increased the sectionalism between them.

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