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How Did The Compromise Of 1850 Play In The Start Of The Civil War

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Recommended: The role of slavery in US history prior to the Civil War

The actions of the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive branches throughout 1789-1860 led to the Civil War. “The Civil War was the culmination of a series of confrontations concerning the institution of slavery.” Most events that happened through that time period were due to the government branches, and also had a play in the lead to the Civil War.
For example, in the years after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Congress was forced to establish a policy to lead the expansion of slavery into the new western territory. Missouri’s application for statehood as a slave state sparked a bitter national debate. In addition to the worse issue posed by the increase of slavery, the growth of pro-slavery Missouri legislators would give the pro-slavery …show more content…

With national relations soured by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso, senators Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas managed to broker a shaky accord with the Compromise of 1850. The compromise prevented further territorial expansion of slavery while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which compelled Northerners to seize and return escaped slaves to the South.
“While the agreement succeeded in postponing outright hostilities between the North and South, it did little to address, and in some ways even reinforced, the structural disparity that divided the United States.” The new Fugitive Slave Act, by forcing non-slaveholders to participate in the institution, also led to increased polarization among centrist citizens.
Another role would be Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s fictional exploration of slave life was a cultural sensation. Northerners felt as if their eyes had been opened to the horrors of slavery, while Southerners protested that Stowe’s work was …show more content…

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, narrowly passed while Congressmen brandished weapons and uttered death threats in the House chambers, overturned parts of the Missouri Compromise by allowing the settlers in the two territories to determine whether or not to permit slavery by a popular vote.
Pro- and anti-slavery agitators flocked to Kansas, hoping to shift the decision by sheer weight of numbers. “The two factions struggled for five years with sporadic outbreaks of bloodshed that claimed fifty-six lives.” Although both territories eventually ratified anti-slavery constitutions, the violence shocked and troubled the nation. Dred Scott was a Virginia slave who tried to sue for his freedom in court. The case eventually rose to the level of the Supreme Court, where the justices found that, as a slave, Dred Scott was a piece of property that had none of the legal rights or recognitions afforded to a human being.
The Dred Scott Decision was an event that happened that effected the start of the Civil War. It threatened to entirely recast the political landscape that had thus far managed to prevent civil war. The classification of slaves as mere property made the federal government’s authority to regulate the institution much more

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