The bloodiest war America has ever fought was the Civil War. The Civil War was fought between North and South America. This war was many years in the making. With every new tax, tariff, law, or new state entry the North and South disagreed. The Missouri Compromise, Manifest Destiny, Popular Sovereignty, Bleeding Kansas, the entry of new states, newspapers and books, the Dred Scott Case, Immigration, and the Compromise of 1850 were just a few of the reasons that caused the North and South to go to war. The Missouri Compromise was the first solution to the first open conflict that took place between the north and South.
This Missouri Territory caused a problem because by 1817 the settlers living in Missouri wanted to become a state. This was seen as a problem because up until now the balance of free states versus slave states had been equal. To solve this problem the government added Missouri as a slave state and Main as a free state. The Missouri Compromise also stated that slavery would be “forever prohibited” above the 36-30’ parallel line. One idea that caused the North and South to try and one up each other was Manifest Destiny.
This is the idea that God gave us America and we could do whatever was needed to insure that we would obtain possession of all of America. Because of Manifest Destiny many people started moving west. After a certain number of people would move in to a territory they would apply for statehood. This always made for controversy among the Northerners and Southerners. New states being added in to the Union caused trouble because if the North got another free state then they would have an unfair advantage in the House of Representatives or vice versa.
The Essay on Black Status Post Civil War America
After the emancipation of slaves in 1862, the status of African-Americans in post civil war America up until the beginning of the twentieth century did not go through a great deal of change. Much legislation was passed to help blacks in this period. The Civil Rights act of 1875 prohibited segregation in public facilities and various government amendments gave African-Americans even more guaranteed ...
After many states had been annexed in to the Union and many discussions had been made, finally a man named Louis Cass came up with the idea of popular sovereignty. This idea would make it so the people living the new states would vote to decide whether they would become a pro slave or anti-slave state. This idea worked well until the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This Act was supposed to make it so that popular sovereignty would solve the state vs. slavery problem but instead it caused Bleeding Kansas. Bleeding Kansas was when many Free Soilers (Northerners) flocked to Kansas to try and make it a free state and many Southerners did the same thing only trying to make it a slave state.
Once they got there violence broke out and much conflict started to arise; by 1856 over 200 lives had been lost. Before this time the newspapers had not been a very important part of the Americans lives; however now the power of print was inevitable. One man who took advantage of the power of print was William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison was so antislavery that he wrote radically against it in an article in the newspaper. He wanted to disassemble the U. S government and went as far as to burn a copy of the Constitution in the town square.
Another person who used the power of print was Harriet Beecher Stowe. She wrote the Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This was a fictional story about a slave who was badly abused. This book opened the eyes of many and started an uproar against slavery. Dred Scott was a slave that moved with his master from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois and then to the free territory of Wisconsin. Soon after Scott returned to Missouri his master died.
The Essay on Missouri Compromise Slavery North State
... a compromise suggested by Jesse Thomas of Illinois; he proposed to allow Missouri admission as a slave state, and Maine as a free state with ... Ordinance of 1787 outlawed slavery of the current territory of the United States, but after the purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the settlement ...
Because Scott had lived in a free state and territory he sued for his freedom. This was a big deal because once again the issue of slavery was brought up in the U. S government. The Supreme Court’s ruling of this was that a slave was property, not a citizen, therefore he/she could not sue ion the court of law. Also, because a slave was property Congress could not take a slave away from his owner. Later in the Douglas vs. Lincoln debates, Lincoln asked Stephen Douglas whether the people of a territory could do away with slavery before they became annexed.
In response to Lincoln’s question Douglas uneasily answered by saying that not Congress but the people of a territory should be able to decide whether or not slavery should be done away with before they acquired statehood. As Henry Clay’s last big political move he introduced the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 had to do with the new territories, gained by the Mexican Cession, and California. This compromise stated four things: 1. California would be admitted as a free state. 2. New Mexico and Utah were created by popular sovereignty. 3. Slave trade was prohibited in Washington D. C, and 4.
A new fugitive slave’s law was passed saying the Underground Railroad must be stopped and that all slaves must be returned. This compromise was debated for over six months but was finally agreed upon. The Compromise of 1850 kept peace among the North and South for almost a decade. As you can see slavery was a major problem that seemed to make its way to the top of every issue that led up to the Civil War. Because of this the North and South were constantly being pulled farther and farther apart. Finally it got to the point that no compromise, law, or tariff could solve their problems; the only thing that could was war.
