What Role Did Slavery Play In The Westward Expansion

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In the year eighteen forty, about forty percent of the nation’s population lived in the trans-Appalachian West. The economy these people lived in was impoverished, so they decided to move west. Their plan was also known as the Westward Expansion. The economic opportunity, and ownership of new land was tied to freedom for the pioneers. One of the major problems of moving West, would be the sectional straining of the North and South. As America started to gain land and move West, sectional tensions began to grow between the North and South because of different perspectives on slavery, how land was acquired, and the growth of their economy. One of the reasons for the divide of the North and South was their different viewpoints on slavery. “The westward expansion of slavery was one of the most dynamic economic and social processes going on in this country”(Foner, 2). The South was pro-slavery and the North was mostly abolitionists. According to the South, slavery was considered one of the most horrible systems, and it was inconsistent with the intention of free. The American Abolitionist Movement played a big role in getting rid of slavery. The people for this movement seen slavery …show more content…
In 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased about 828,000,000 square miles of land from France, which is also known as the Louisiana Purchase. After the purchase, more problems with land started to pop up, and treaties along with ordinances were put into place. For example, the Missouri Compromise threatened the balance of free and slave slates. To keep the peace Missouri was allowed to enter as a slave state but Maine had to enter as a non-slave state. The compromised proved that sectionalism was still growing, because the question of whether congress had the right to prohibit slavery in the territories had not been

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