Westward Expansion and Rising
Tension over Slavery
Unit 6, Lesson 2
Essential Idea
• Tension over whether slavery could expand
west and the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise brought the United States closer
to civil war.
Impact of Mexican-American War
• Impact of Mexican-American War:
• 1. The United States owned land from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Pacific
• 2. This newly owned land could become many new states
• 3. The major question: Would these new states would be free or
slave?
The Mexican-American War and the Civil
War
• The Mexican-American War and the Civil War:
• All compromises over slavery in this new land
would fail
• Sectionalism between the North and South would
reach the breaking point, the Civil War
The Rise of Sectionalism
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1820:
Missouri Compromise
Details:
This compromise kept
the number of free
and slave states equal
• It also created a line
(36°30’) to designate
future free and slave
states
• The compromise ONLY
applied to the
Louisiana Territory
• This compromise kept
sectional tension low
until the MexicanAmerican War brought
in new land
Rising Sectionalism: Mexican-American
War
• 1846-1848:
• Mexican-American
War
• Details:
• The war brought in
new land that both
the North and South
wanted to influence
• Reactions:
• The North saw the
war as a southern
conspiracy to create
more slave states
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Rising Sectionalism: Wilmot Proviso
1846:
Wilmot Proviso
To appease the North, this bill proposed making all land won from Mexico FREE
Reactions:
Southern Congressmen angrily blocked the bill from becoming law
A Possible Solution: Popular Sovereignty
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1848:
Popular sovereignty
Details:
“Popular sovereignty” means “letting the people rule”
Some said each STATE, not the federal government, should decide if they would have slavery
Reactions:
Angry northern abolitionists felt slavery should not be an option
Popular sovereignty failed violently in Kansas (more on this later)
Rising Sectionalism:
A New Political Party
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1848:
Free-Soil Party forms
Details:
This party did not want slavery
to expand West
They were NOT against slavery
itself
They wanted to keep the West
for whites and did not want to
compete with slaves for jobs
Reactions:
Northern abolitionists disliked
the Free-Soil party because it
was not against slavery
Southerners were angry and
wanted slavery to expand west
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California Gold Rush
1849:
California Gold Rush
Details:
After gold was discovered in 1848, over
80,000 “49ers” rushed to California to try
to make a fortune
Comstock Lode—this silver strike had
similar effects on Nevada
Rapidly growing towns called “boomtowns”
sprang up at mining sites
Nativism Toward Asian Immigrants
• Many 49ers were Asian immigrants who experienced strong
nativism
Rising Sectionalism: California Statehood?
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The Gold Rush
California grew so fast that it requested to become a FREE state
Reactions:
The South was angry because this would upset the free/slave state
balance
Lowering
Sectionalism:
Compromise of 1850
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1850:
Compromise of 1850
Details:
This determined the
status of the land from
the Mexican Cession,
including California
• It was proposed by Henry
Clay, who had before
developed the Missouri
Compromise
Lowering Sectionalism: Compromise of
1850
• Terms of Compromise of 1850:
• 1. North received—California
became a free state
• 2. The rest of the new land was
divided into two territories that
would decide on slavery using
popular sovereignty
• 3. South received—a stronger
Fugitive Slave Act to catch
runaways in the North
• Reactions:
• The Compromise of 1850 eased
sectional tension for a short
time
• The Compromise of 1850 and
the Fugitive Slave Act
Rising Sectionalism: Fugitive Slave Act
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1850
Fugitive Slave Act
Details:
This law became the most
controversial part of the
Compromise of 1850
• It forced northerners to
aid slave catchers
• Blacks were falsely
identified as runaways,
denied jury trials, and
kidnapped to the South as
slaves
• The Fugitive Slave Act
Fugitive Slave Act
• Northern reaction:
• Many northerners
who had been
indifferent toward
slavery began to hate
slavery
• The North and South
became more divided
over slavery
• Northerners React to
Fugitive Slave Act
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Rising Sectionalism: Uncle
Tom’s Cabin
1852:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin published
Details:
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle
Tom’s Cabin, a book about slavery
The book was graphic and made slavery
look terrible
Reactions:
Northerners who had been indifferent
toward slavery began to hate slavery
Southerners banned the book, calling it
propaganda and full of lies
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The North and South became more
divided over slavery