The United States And The Civil War - 1374 Words

After the Mexican War ended on February 1848 when the US and Mexican government signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the US had the concept of manifest destiny, belief that the US would continue to spread west with ideas of the advancement in factories and a dispute over the issue of slavery. In that same year, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania composed the Wilmot Proviso, stating that slavery cannot exist in any territory acquired by Mexico, which upset many Southerners leading to events such as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and the Compromise of 1850 on how the issue of slavery would prevent the US from westward expansion and factory production. Eventually, the issue of slavery would cause the US nation to break into two groups called the†¦show more content†¦Even though the Compromise of 1850 allowed California to enter the Union as a free state, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made slavery a huge issue between the North and the South. To the North, slavery represented a ba rrier from westward expansion and factory expansion. Since the North was focused more on factories than on human labor, slavery can play a huge issue in deciding whether to expand the market by having more people work in factories versus in plantations, allowing the firm to make a profit from the items it sells. However, to the South, slavery represented a white owners’ property on plantations. With more slaves that a white owner could have, the South could increase the supply of cotton and tobacco being grown, causing the demand for slaves to also increase. Therefore, if the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had not been created, white owners in the South would not be able to increase the amount of cotton and tobacco being grown in plantations. Another example of an event leading to the collapse of the Union in 1861 is the Dred Scott Case of 1857. On March 1857, after Dred Scott had accompanied his owner to move from Missouri to Illinois, where slavery was barred by the Missouri Compromise, Dred Scott was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether his move from Missouri to Illinois allowed him to become free or allowed him to remain as a slave. In the end, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney concluded