preview

Secession Dbq Essay

Decent Essays

First off, one the main reasons of the secession were political and economic factors. The biggest contributor of these factors was the lack of seats in congress of the southern states. Ever since the 1820s, the Northern region of the United States held the majority in congress due to the higher amount of population in the North. By the time the 1860s came, the North has a population of about 22 million people while the South only had about 9 million, with only 5 million of those being free men. With such a higher amount of seats in congress representing Northern interests, it was inevitable that the policies would reflect only Northern interests. This is most observable through taxations, a job of congress under the Constitution. …show more content…

A large argument for the South was that the federal government did not reflect their interests. This was proven true by the hurting taxes. The second way it was starting to prove true was the increasing sentiment of abolitionism in the North seeing slavery as something unnecessary. With Slavery being threatened, the South felt that they would be left economically destroyed if the North were to succeed in its mission of abolition. They felt this way for two reasons. First, their agriculture industry depended on slaves and secondly, the South saw slavery as an industry on its 5 "Selected Quotations from 1830 to 1865." Civilwarcauses.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. own because slaves were considered property. Mississippi senator, Albert Brown, said, "Mr. President, it seems to me that northern Senators most pertinaciously overlook the main point at issue between the two sections of our Confederacy. We claim that there is property in slaves, and they deny it.”6 Until the late 1850s, the North and South had largely avoided large disputes over slavery. Yet the conflict about slavery was inevitable as a new question arose on how to apply slavery policies in the new westward …show more content…

Furthermore, an imaginary line was placed at 36o 30 ́ latitude and the territories north of the line would be free while the ones below it would be slave states. The worked until the acquisition of territories from Mexico. Ultimately, all territories acquired from Mexico would be slave states except for California. This would be known as the Compromise of 1850. The last event, and certainly the most controversial one, would be the Kansas-Nebraska act and the events that followed such as “Bloody Kansas”. In said act, the territories west of Missouri would be split into two, Kansas and Nebraska. Later, these two states would choose for themselves to become slave states or free states. This outrages the abolitionists because the act also repealed the Missouri act. By doing so, it let the states choose what type of states they would become while slavery would 6 "Selected Quotations from 1830 to 1865." Civilwarcauses.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. normally be illegal there with the Missouri Compromise still in place. Afterwards, both sides, the abolitionists and people that were pro-slavery, went to Kansas from all over the country to vote on Kansas’ fate. This lead to the conflict know as “Bloody Kansas”

Get Access