Pro Slavery Expansionist Movement

86 Words1 Pages
Perhaps one of the greatest elections in American history was the election of 1860. It was a unique election, because it sets the stage for the American Civil War. Throughout the 1850s, the United States was divided around the issues of states’ rights and slavery in the country’s territories (The Presidential Election of 1860, 2010). The Republicans opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise of prohibiting slavery north of the latitude thirty-six degrees and thirty. Many saw this as a pro-slavery expansionist movement.