To what extent was slavery the key cause of the US Civil war? - page 1
Keywords: American Civil War
By 4stuchfi on 01/10/2008
Level: A Level (Year 13)
Page Number: 1 of 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
Slavery was the main cause of tension in the US in the 1800’s that led to the American civil war, the question over slavery was the initial and arguably one of the only causes to divide the north and the south starting in the 1820’s and ending years later in 1865.
In 1819 there were 22 states in the US, 11 free and 11 slave and the balance of slavery and freedom was balanced, however Missouri applied to enter the Union as a slave state. The north were outraged and denied the request, which led to very heated debates in Congress causing great tension between the north and the south. It wasn’t until a year later that a compromise was completed which stated that no state or territory in the Louisiana Purchase Territory and above the 36 30 line could become a slave stated. To balance the problem the north created and made Maine a free state, as Missouri had become slave. The Missouri compromise did ease tension at the time but the question had been asked about if slavery was right or wrong and the balance would have to be constantly equal to stop tension and conflict in the future.
Westward expansion was also a great area of concern, Democrat James Polk was very committed to the idea, he wanted to annex California and New Mexico from Mexico and let the Americans settle there. He believed it was ‘manifest destiny’ to control the whole continent. The idea of westward expansion was a good one because it would enable people to live in more room and to grow the population, however many northerners merely saw the idea of westward expansion to spread slavery. Polk’s ideas angered and worried the north and caused relations to break down further due to a lack of trust.
At The very beginning of the Mexican war the north issued the Wilmot Doctrine that proposed that any territory gained from Mexico should exclude slavery. This was very unpopular in the south as they wanted and needed to expand slavery if it had any chance of surviving and so caused great tension inside and outside of Congress.
To battle this the south proposed a series of resolutions under the name, The Calhoun Doctrine, which stated that any slave owner had the right to take his property into any free or slave state if he or she decided to and
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