#Westward expansion timelime free#

Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania first introduced a potential solution to the problem in 1846.

When the United States entered into a war with Mexico over Texas and its western territories, the issue of extending slavery in the west resurfaced in Congress. In the years to come, politicians of both northern and southern states would not be so quick so compromise. 3 This Compromise solved the immediate problem of slavery in the Louisiana Purchase by sweeping the real issue of slavery under the rug in order to placate both northern and southern politicians. The Compromise also made future bondage illegal in all areas of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36☃0′ parallel with the exception of Missouri all future states below this line would become Slave States.

#Westward expansion timelime free#

Henry Clay of Kentucky temporarily solved the issue by crafting the Missouri Compromise, bringing Missouri into the Union as a Slave State and, as a balance, Maine entered as a Free State. As Missouri prepared to enter the Union as a Slave State, this tentative balance threatened to come undone. The States had previously maintained a shaky balance in the Senate with an equal number of representatives from both Slave and Free States. Politicians were forced to deal with the issue of slavery and its westward expansion as early as the Missouri Compromise of 1820. First Steps Towards Controlling Slavery and Westward Expansion The broadside was written by Frederick Douglass, signed by Douglass along with 54 leaders in the Philadelphia African American community, and published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. military after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Cowan’s Auctions, 1863.A printed broadside recruiting men of color to enlist in the U.S. 2 Slavery became even more divisive when it threatened to expand westward because non-slaveholding white settlers did not want to compete with slaveholders in the new territories. Although some northerners found the institution of slavery morally reprehensible, most did not believe in complete racial equality either. With this willing and cheap workforce, the North did not require a slave system. Northern cities, the center of industry in the United States, became major metropolises due to an influx of immigrants. While the South utilized slavery to sustain its culture and grow cotton on plantations, the North prospered during the Industrial Revolution. The Sectional Divide between the North and the South Ayers on the Civil War from The Gilder Lehrman Institute As the compromises appeared to become more one-sided, however, sectional divides between the North and South became more pronounced.

The federal government, hoping to prevent a civil war, temporarily resolved the issue with compromises. 1 These fears were realized when the expansion of slavery into western territories entered Congressional debates. The North, especially, was afraid that the South would force its “peculiar institution” upon the entire Union.

Since the drafting of the Constitution in 1787, the North and the South had grown further apart in terms of economy, ideology, and society. To many nineteenth-century Americans, the expansion of slavery into western territories caused a great deal of controversy. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window).Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window).