The Missouri Compromise: The Cause Of The Civil War

The cause of the Civil War was led by the constant stream of conflicting ideas and laws such as the seemingly inequitable Missouri Compromise, the gory battles effectuated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the invidious Dred Scott decision that caused bloodshed and hostility between the North and South of the United States. The war had multiple different potential causes, but they all root back to conflicts on slavery and reliance on the system they’ve accustomed themselves to. The secession of the Southern states, or the formal withdrawal from the nation, was the final breaking point that sparked the Civil War, but many events before that led to the event. The Missouri Compromise dealt with handling the balance between slave and free states.

The compromise angered many already unhappy Southerners about how the spread of slavery was restricted. The compromise provoked numerous disputes in which antislavery and pro-slavery groups fought for power. Neither the Northern nor Southern people wanted the other to gain the advantage. The second part of the compromise was called the 36°37’ latitude line and caused the fighting to heighten. The 36°37’ latitude line banned the entrance of slavery above the border of Missouri and restricted how much it could grow. This irritated pro-slave Southerners and caused them to resent the antislavery Northerners more. This dissolved more of what little trust each side still had in the other. Due to sectionalism, neither side would let go of their initial views and were very committed to getting their preferred solution. This resulted in recurring dissent and disagreement, but even after the fighting settled a little, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed and fueled another large-scale

They split the section of land into two states, Kansas and Nebraska which would each be a slave or free state based on a vote. Southerners and Northerners struggled to come to an agreement and each wanted both states. Each side envied the other greatly and disarray grew among them. Neither wanted the other to have more than one state or else the balance would be unequal. The Kansas-Nebraska Act also removed the 36°37’ latitude line, infuriating antislavery Northerners. It was declared a “ gross violation of a sacred pledge” (Stuckey, 2005, 561), and thought it was the South’s plan to turn the free territory into a dreary, slave-ridden land. The North hosted protest meetings and held petitions and further mistrusted the South. After masses of verbal fighting, some people started to resort to violence. In an event called Bleeding Kansas, many people were murdered and attacked by people with opposing opinions. For example, the Pottawatomie Massacre resulted in the death of about 200 people in a miniature civil war in Kansas. This was not the end, though, as a slave named Dred Scott attempted to fight for his rights as a slave in a free state at the