Effects Of Westward Expansion

The economic and social differences highlighted by westward expansion led to the creation of two complete different sections of America, the North and the South. Yes, the North and South were already created; however, the economic and social changes, which became more clear through westward expansion, led them to growing farther apart and the two sides having a political conflict between each other’s ideas for the future of America. Westward expansion led to the North and South having to try and come to an agreement on whether the new states and territories would become a slave states or a free states. The North valued the abolition of slavery while the South thrived on slavery. Many compromises were created due to this conflict between two
There were no occurrences besides D.C where America saw a state change from slave to free or vise versa. With that said, the New Mexico and Utah territory were to be determined by Popular sovereignty due to the Great Compromise of 1850. This meant that within the state people would decide on whether the state should be determined as a slave or free state. The intentions of popular sovereignty were only good. The goal of it was to let the people decide giving them ultimate power and promoting democracy. Instead, popular sovereignty led to a division of people within the Kansas-Nebraska. Citizens either supported slavery and wanted to be a slave state or opposed slavery and wanted it to be a free state. There was no in between. As a duty of being a citizen, you defended what you believed so people were fighting to convince the other side that there side was superior. That was pointless because of how drastic the difference was between either being a slave or free state. There was a 0% chance of compromising, so this led to people fighting physically for what they believed for. An example of this was “Bleeding Kansas”. Bleeding Kansas happened because settlers who were anti-slavery fought settlers that were pro-slavery. This was due to popular sovereignty. People that lived more in the southern territory were pro-slavery and fought for Kansas to be a slave while the
The main difference between the North and South was was their main source of economy. The South had extremely fertile land, which led to tobacco being a main source of income for the South for both growing and exporting purposes.This led to many plantations and the development of more crops such as: cotton, sugarcane, and sugar beets. Southerners could not run a plantation by themselves, so black slaves that they got from Africa did most of the labor for them. Resulting in slave labor being a major factor for the agricultural economy. On the contrary, the North did not have as nice soil or climate and turned to having a more industrialized economy that was more reliant on trade for their economy. This economic difference was huge because a main reason the North wanted no slavery was because their economy was not at all reliant on it. On the other hand, the South needed it because without slave labor not only does the Southern economy get affected but America’s economy as a whole does because of the negative effect it would have on cotton production. The South claimed, rightly so, that the mass production of cotton was a necessity to America’s economy. This is expressed in “Cotton is King,” a speech given by James Henry Hammond. It states that, “United States exported in round numbers $279,000,000 worth of domestic produce and that the