Preview

Analyze the Circumstances Leading to the Missouri Compromise.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
464 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analyze the Circumstances Leading to the Missouri Compromise.
DBQ Ch.9

Analyze the circumstances leading to the Missouri Compromise.

The expansion of the western borders and territories caused concern for the Northern states. First, the Southern states were extremely in favor of slavery. And second, the increasing population and expansion of territories in the Southern region made the Northern regions uncertain. They were afraid of the Southern states outnumbering the Northern states in the House of Representatives, leading to a shift of power in the country.
After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States nearly doubled in size. (Doc.7) When we received this land, cotton plantation owners in the South saw this as a great chance to make large profits, but in order to grow more cotton in the new land, many more slaves were needed. The North was against the extension of slavery, and they did not approve of the South extending slavery to the new lands. In addition, if the South was to extend slavery westward,(Doc.4 and 6) more states would be established, which meant more votes would come from the West during elections, which possibly could of resulted in the North losing political power, which they greatly feared. (Doc.8) As a result of these events, the South wanted to extend slavery to the West and increase the demand for slaves, while the North disagreed with the South extending slavery and losing political power.
The Southern regions were successful due to prosperous cotton farming in the region. Because of this, they wanted a large number of slaves to be able to take care of the lands. The Northern states were afraid that this would bring about disproportion in the country due to more number of slaves states than free states in the region. They also wanted complete abolishment of slavery in the country. In order to prevent a civil war from unfolding in a young country, the Missouri Compromise was passed. (Doc.3) The state of Missouri would be declared as a slave state. At the same time, Maine would be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Missouri Compromise Dbq

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Missouri Compromise is commonly thought of as the beginning of American sectionalism, although the signs were visible long before 1819. The crisis solved by the compromise certainly alerted the South for the need for political unity in order to maintain its way of life in the face of a more populous North. Likewise, it alerted both regions to the political problems inherent in westward expansion. The Missouri Compromise did not create sectionalism, but it is important as the first possible signs of sectionalist differences in the US.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The issue of slavery became an even greater concern when the Louisiana Purchase territories were to enter the Union as states. The question was, would new territories enter the Union as slave or free states? The South wanted a balance of power. They knew that if the North were to have more free states, then slavery in the south could be facing extinction through congress. In an attempt to conciliate with the South, the North agreed upon the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Through this, slavery was banned above the 36 degrees 30 minute line and Missouri entered as a slave state, Maine a free state. For a while, it retained the balance of power. However, tempers in the south rose again later in the 1820s over high tariffs. The tariffs benefitted the north but threatened southern cotton exports. In 1828, the tariff was around 50%. President Jackson modified it to around 33% in 1832 only to have South Carolina nullify it in the state. It raised the question of whether or not the federal government could legally impose protective tariffs and whether it was constitutional for a state to nullify a federal law. "South…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Missouri Compromise was written in the year of 1820 on March 3rd and was also passed on the same day. This compromise approved Missouri to come to America as a slave state, but conserved the correspondence between the North and the South by modeling the land of Maine out of Massachusetts and stopping slavery from territories accomplished in the Louisiana Purchase which is the north of the line of 36 30’ and this is the southern boundary of Missouri. The South and the North was not satisfied with the Missouri Compromise because many southern congressmen balloted to oppose the compromise. They opposed it because the limit on future slavery in the territories was not excessively abusive to the slave owners. It was abusive to them because the…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 established the slavery line that allowed slavery below it and forbid slavery above it. It also gave the South another slave state in Missouri and the north a free state in Maine. Although each region gained a state in the Senate, the south benefited most from the acquisition because Missouri was in such a pivotal position in the country, right on the border. Later on with the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Missouri had a big role in getting Kansas to vote south because many proslavery Missourians crossed the border into Kansas to vote slavery. The Missouri Compromise also helped slavery because the line that was formed to limit slavery had more land below the line than above it. Therefore, slavery was given more land to be slave and therefore more power in the Senate, when the territories became state. In effect, the north got the short end of the stick and the south was given the first hint of being able to push around the north. The interesting thing is, the north agreed to all these provisions that would clearly benefit the south.…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Union lack of military success, the change of northern public opinion, the added strength and resupply of men the freed slaves would provide were…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    While there had already been tension building between the North and the South, the addition of new territory added new fuel to the fire. If the new states that emerged from the Louisiana Territory were all free, then the balance of power in the U.S. Senate would tilt decisively against slavery or vice versa . From the moment that the expansion of the United States emerged, there was conflict. Eventually after many years of debate the Missouri Compromise came to be in 1820. The Missouri Compromise was devised by Henry Clay . It was an attempt to defuse the tension causes by the addition of the Louisiana Purchase. It gave the pre-slavers the decisive state they needed to hold their position in congress. After much debate was had about which states would be free or slave states with the addition of the Louisiana Purchase, a compromise was worked out. To appease both sides Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and Maine (which used to be apart Massachusetts) would have the status of a free state, and minus Missouri, slavery was to be excluded at a certain latitude . With the Missouri Compromise; all states south of Missouri would be slave states and all states north of it would be free. The addition of Missouri as a slave state just ignited the already hot debate about the legitimacy of slavery. While the Louisiana Purchase would eventually help to…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    History 101 Assignment 1

    • 615 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the Missouri Compromise, Missouri applied for admission to the United States in 1819. Congress did no make any provisions to not allow for slavery in the area west of the Mississippi River. The north and the south differed over no more slaves being introduced into Missouri. Majority of the north agreed to this offer although most of the south was against it. The south did not want the north to control Congress and its…

    • 615 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Northerners who might have been unwilling to go to war over the slavery in the South, were placed in a difficult situation by the requirement that they capture Blacks who had escaped bondage and return them to their former slave-holders. This put Northerners directly in collusion with slavery, and they couldn't live with…

    • 54 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Missouri Compromise, (1820), in U.S. history, measure worked out between the North and the South and passed by the U.S. Congress that allowed for admission of Missouri as the 24th state (1821). It marked the beginning of the prolonged sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the American Civil War.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Missouri Compromise, in many ways made political conditions worse between the North and South. For a long time the North and South had been fighting about political issues such as slavery. The North believed that it was wrong to capture, enslave and ship Africans to America to work in harsh conditions for free for White owners. The South, on the other hand believed slavery was right and should be used for helping the economy and producing cash crops so the North could use the supplies to make products. But the addition of new states, especially an uneven number made the tension grow between the two sides on the decision of slavery.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    North and South The United States of America, the great democratic experiment, was just that. Not since the great Greek culture had a government of, for, and by the people existed. The entire world felt, that on a large scale, democracy would inevitably lead to anarchy; our founding fathers were determined to prove them wrong. But as the political stand off with the British became a secession issue, a great issue split the future nation. Slavery, a southern necessity, both social and economic, threatened the unity of our nation. A nation that would one day be the greatest the world had ever known. During the development of the thirteen colonies, diversity set in early. In the south the temperate climate made the growth of tobacco a suitable and very profitable business. Cultivation of this crop required a lot of land, and therefore settlers lived far apart. Northern Colonies, though, were much more dependent on small farms, with closely knit communities. These differences were the seed of a sectional division that would plague the nation for a century. During the late seventeenth century, this fissure in the ideals of the colonies became apparent. Following the constant political irreverence from Britain, a majority of colonial representatives felt the need for independence. The Declaration of Independence was the document written to do this. It called for an abolition of slavery as well as freedom from British rule. Unfortunately, the South would hear nothing of it. Being strong defenders of states rights, most of the Southern states adhered to their believe in a government less like a supreme authority and more like a dominion of independent states. They would rather stay loyal to their oppressive government than participate in one that shunned their way of life. In order to keep their dreams of independence, they North was forced to make the one cession they did not wish to make. In order to keep a unified nation, the slavery issue was deliberately absent from…

    • 1628 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The southern states not being as highly populated as the northern states feared Congress having the power to regulate trade. They gave in to a compromise that prohibited the federal government from levying export taxes and from interfering with slave trade, which the south depended on for their tobacco plantations.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Era of Good Feeling

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When Monroe became president the nation’s expectations were very high. After defeated the British in two major wars, American was slowly but surely becoming a strong power. America reached a high, socially and people became more dedicated to keep the union. There was a sense of separation between the north and south but Monroe and John Quincy Adams made it evident that there wasnt separation because Monroe won all electoral votes except for one. The only distinction was the North hated slavery and the abolitionists began to become stronger. South supported slavery and while new states were being added they wanted them to allow slavery as well. This also became a problem but was settled by the Missouri Compromise, which made it a slave state but all states above the 36 30 line. Thomas Jefferson saw this as a problem stating that “a geographical line coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry possessions of men will never be obliterated and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. The industrial economy of the North and the agrarian economy of the South was difference between the two. The main problem created by this tension was the economic policies of the nation and as John Randolph pointed out to the Congress in 1816.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They depended greatly on the North for their industries and factories, because they had very few. They also opposed federal spending on internal improvements and they wanted no tariffs. Even despite having a somewhat weak economy, the South wanted to gain their independence to become their own country, and to have their own way of life, which included slavery as legal. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, the South thought that they would have no voice in the government, considering that Abraham Lincoln was against slavery. In hopes of being their own country, the South had no intention of fighting a war. However, before the war started, the South was unwilling to compromise. They thought that slavery should be allowed in all of the territories. They disagreed to the Missouri Compromise and to parts of the Compromise of 1850. Many felt that these compromises were unfair and biased. The South felt that their way of life and views on slavery were right and just. They turned to what they thought was their only choice: seceding from the Union. This enrage the North, which was one of the main causes of the Civil War.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Causes Of The Secession

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Firstly, the issues of States Rights and tariffs raised a lot of opposing views between the two regions. The greatest cause of the divide, however, was the controversies that arose on the issue of slavery. The South had a slavery institution while the Northern states had banned the practice altogether. The southern region feared that sooner or later, the law might expand into their territories, decimating their economic productivity. In support of secession, Preston stressed that it was impossible for the South to exist without slavery ((John S. Preston (John Smith), 1809-1881.…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays