Dbq Civil War

The United States as a whole was divided before the Civil War, over the dispute of whether slavery should be allowed or not after the Mexican American war ended in 1848. After the Mexican American war citizens of the North and the South began to dispute the issue of slavery and tensions started to rise. There were many things proposed that were proposed to help the dispute over slavery such as the Wilmot Provisio which would close off California, Utah and New Mexico off from slavery. However it was not approved by the Senate as well, the South did not agree with the provisio as they feared that it would shift the balance of the power in the north. The Civil war was an inevitable fate that not only the North and the South had to face but the
This portion of the act was proposed to appeal to the liking of the south. Although it may have appealed to the south it also stirred feelings in the north. The laws were not practical as they violated the slaves 6th amendment right to a trial by jury, also the slaves could not testify of their own behalf. Angered by this many states passes personal liberty laws which prohibit the imprisonment of the runaway slaves and permitted them a trial by jury. The push for the rights for African Americans and slaves as a whole led to an abolitionist movement to be sparked throughout the united states that opened up many northerners and southerners eyes to the harsh realities of slaver and how morally wrong it was. As these abolitionist feelings intensified so did the dispute over whether or not slavery should be allowed in the disputed territories of present day Kansa and Nebraska that were supposed to be settled in the compromise of
Stephan Douglas who proposed the Kansas and Nebraska act in 1854 thought that popular sovereignty should settle the dispute over whether or not slavery should be allowed in the Nebraska territory. However with the compromise of 36° 30' the territory was legally closed to slavery. To settle this Douglas voughed to repeal the Missouri Compromise line and establish popular sovereignty as the means of how the territories settle their issue on slavery. Not every one agreed on this issue. Parts of the North saw the act as a plan to turn the territories directly into slave states, and this therefore made them very weary and spiteful. This over all ill natured feeling spilled over into the population as the fate of Kansas hung in the balance after the act became a law in May of