Why So Many Americans Sought To Create An Equal Number Of Slave States And Free States

There were an equal number of slave states and free states, but Missouri wanting to join the slave states created an imbalance. To make the number of states equal again, Maine joined as a free state. There are multiple reasons for this creating an increase in sectionalism, but one of the main concerns was different economic values. The South heavily relied on farming and slavery, but the North relied more on tariffs and infrastructure. The Compromise of 1820 made it extremely evident that the two sides had very different values. The compromise was to try and resolve the Nullification Crisis, which started because the tariffs were not being enforced. The tariffs were slowly reduced, which helped the South immediately because they were severely impacted by the tariffs.
While this was all happening, Texas gave up some land in order to get more money, and slave trade was no longer allowed in D.C. Finally, a more strict Slave Act was passed, which made it so citizens had to help capture runaway slaves to avoid punishment. There were two main issues, and the first one was there was a power imbalance in Congress when they added California to the list of free states. The second issue was with the North, they were very angry at the fact that they had to help return the slaves when they did not agree with slavery in the first place. This law made it easier for slave owners to have the runaway slaves returned to them. The rules set were there would no longer be a trial for the slaves, commissioners would be paid more for returning slaves rather than allowing them to be free, anyone who was caught helping slaves would be punished, and citizens had to help catch the slaves or else they could be fined or even arrested. Many people in the North did not want to be involved in helping to capture the runaway slaves because they did not believe it was morally