westward expansion and slavery essay

Slavery and other Domestic Challenges of Western Expansion

"'Oklahoma Cotton Field' Overseer and Negro cotton pickers, ca. 1897-1898"

Contemporary portrayals of the United States' Westward Expansion often painted the process as the inevitable march of progress. Sadly, many of the complications surrounding expansion proved to be milestones on the path to the American Civil War . As the borders moved westward, so did American settlers, which raised several serious questions over what certain Americans were bringing with them; particularly the slaves. Historians have often noted how the complications surrounding the acquisition of new territory exacerbated domestic sectional tensions within the country around several major economic and social issues, since both North and South saw the west as the place to guarantee their distinct and ultimately conflicting visions for the country. Despite multiple compromises to work around these issues, conflict inevitably came to a head as Southerners dug their heels in to defend the institution upon which they built their society from hindrance. 

Though the majority of Americans were involved in agriculture production of some form throughout the 19th century, the southern economy was uniquely specialized in the business. Southern agriculture itself also differed from that of the North as it was built mostly on specific cash crops like cotton, tobacco, sugar and rice instead of food production. Those first three crops were extremely labor intensive, and so the use of unpaid, forced labor helped make their production far more profitable than it otherwise would have been. A little less than half of white southerners owned slaves, and only a small percentage of slave owners themselves ran the enormous plantations where these crops were grown, but since they, especially cotton, was in such high demand in the North and Europe, these men and their families became fabulously wealthy, enough to completely dominate Southern social and political life, as well as the representation of Southern states in Washington. The racialized aspect of slavery also gave poorer whites enough incentive to support slavery as well, as even the poorest white man possessed more dignity than any slave. And as the Northern economy began turning away from farms and towards factories, the South, outside of a few large cities, further entrenched itself in these specialized exports as well as the system of chattel slavery that supported it. But that entrenchment presented a problem for Southern elites, as it did not leave much room for the same kind of dynamic economic growth as the North was experiencing through industrialization. The South was convinced that the survival of their economic system, which intersected with almost every aspect of Southern life, lay exclusively in the ability to create new plantations in the western territories, which meant that slavery had to be kept safe in those same territories, especially as Southerners increasingly saw more and more hostility towards the practice. 

Was the South right to view the North as conspiring against them to destroy slavery? They certainly felt that way in 1860 after the election of Abraham Lincoln and John Brown's 1859 “ Raid ” on Harper's Ferry, and the Abolitionist movement had been steadily growing in America since its first appearance in the early 19th century, but were they right in labelling all Northerners as such? Many Northern figures did have an entirely separate vision for the new territories. As Northern states and cities became more crowded, many sought refuge in the west away from the urban clamor, but because they planned to practice the same kind of agriculture practiced elsewhere the north, typically subsistence farming by small, independent (or yeoman) planters, they dreaded the thought of competing with cotton farming and slave labor over land and resources. The desire to protect these settlers from such overwhelming competition formed the basis of the Free Labor movement, which sought to restrict slavery from the new territories as much as possible. It should be said of course, that this movement existed for the potential benefit of white Americans and white immigrants from Europe seeking a new life in the west, although many in the Labor movement did deem slavery to be morally wrong on its own. A vocal percentage of that group went on to join the growing Abolitionist movement that wanted to end slavery for good, but at no point did they form the majority of slavery's opponents. 

It is worth noting that many Northerners had their own conspiracy theories about the reach of Southern domination of American society. It was true that the Three-Fifths clause in the Constitution that allowed Southern states to partially count the enslaved population in awarding additional congressmen and electors gave the South disproportionate influence on Washington, especially since they basically represented the interests of a small number of landed elites, but not to the point where they controlled the entire federal government. The situation did allow Southern politicians to vote in unison as a block for slavery interests, aided by sympathetic Northerners.  

Faced with such a startling divide on the issue, policy makers in Washington decided to form a compromise, or an agreement that sought to address certain concerns on both sides. This first attempt to bridge the gap between North and South took the form of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. To ease tensions, Congress decided that the territory of Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state, while the territory north of New Hampshire would enter as the free state of Maine. This would allow slave states to hold parity with free states in the senate, which held two members from each state and would act as a check to Northern domination of the House of Representatives, where the number of members from each state was proportional to population. Congress also planned from then on to allow new states from the west to enter the Union as pairs, one slave and one free, to maintain parity in the Senate. When President Monroe passed the Compromise into law, many congratulated themselves on successfully navigating the issue, as at that point even most slave owners believed the practice would die a natural death eventually, but a prominent few mourned the chance to deal with the issue decisively. Former President Thomas Jefferson , whose views on slavery could fill its own book, compared the treatment of slavery to holding a wolf by the ears, writing, "we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go." 

For a few years, the Compromise held firm, but starting in the 1830's, regional tensions again put pressure on expansion. 1831 in particular saw the South become ever more defensive and willing to justify slavery thanks to Nat Turner's rebellion, this time as a moral good instead of a necessary evil. The Nullification Crisis, during which South Carolina tried to block federal tariffs designed to foster industrial growth in the North, also convinced many Southerners that Northerners planned to use the power of the federal government to cripple the Southern economy. More stress on the deal arose as more territories were added. The Texas Revolution, started in part by Anglo-American settlers seeking to preserve slavery after Mexico had abolished it, and its subsequent annexation by the U.S. as a state led to a flurry of criticism by Northerners against those they saw as putting the interests of slavery over those of the country as a whole. Those criticisms got only louder as the Annexation led to a war with Mexico, and talk among certain politicians became not whether the U.S. should take even more territory from its defeated rival, but how much. Then-congressman Abraham Lincoln in particular challenged President James K. Polk to prove his assertion that the war began when Mexican troops skirmished with American patrols on American soil. Abolitionists like the ex-slave Frederick Douglass accused war supporters in Congress of openly conspiring to annex far more territory than the conflict necessitated; not a particularly unfair claim as talks of annexing territories like California existed in Democratic circles before the war itself, and during treaty negotiations, Southern senators like Jefferson Davis pushed much more forcefully for taking more land beyond Alta California and Nuevo Mexico. Davis himself introduced an amendment to add the majority of Northwest Mexico to the Cessation, while some supported conquering the entire country itself. This “All of Mexico Movement” failed rapidly for a number of reasons, particularly the challenge of placing the entire country under military occupation and fears of granting conquered Mexicans citizenship status, the idea remained a favorite among a few prominent Southerners. During the 1850's, the secret society Knights of the Golden Circle dreamed of eventually expanding through Mexico and into Central and South America, as well as control of the entire Caribbean Archipelago. In the words of popular Charleston secessionist Robert B. Rhett, "We will expand, as our growth and civilization shall demand – over Mexico – over the isles of the sea – over the far-off Southern tropics – until we shall establish a great Confederation of Republics – the greatest, freest and most useful the world has ever seen." On the other side of the isle, Wilmot's Proviso, a bill proposed by Pennsylvanian Congressman David Wilmot, sought to restrict slavery from any territory taken by Mexico. To Southerners’ shock and horror, the bill actually managed to pass the House, before rejection by the Senate.  

By now this North/South rivalry had been rapidly mounting, but things truly came to a head in 1850 with the reorganization of the California territory. Flooded with settlers seeking their fortunes from the Gold Rush, California finally felt itself ready to enter the Union, but desired only to do so as a free state. This caused enormous consternation in Congress, as such a move would upset the careful North/South parity in the Senate. To rectify the issue, Congress produced a series of bills collectively called the Compromise of 1850 , allowing California into the Union as a free state as well as banning the domestic slave trade in the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, Congress allowed the Utah and Nebraska Territories to decide for themselves whether or not to restrict slavery within their borders, a concept developed by Illinois Democrat Stephen Douglas called "Popular Sovereignty." To appease slave-owners, Congress agreed to put away the Wilmot Proviso for good, decided upon the official borders for Texas, and most controversially, passed a new Fugitive Slave Act . The new act punished any citizen who did not aid in arresting an escaped slave, while also lessening the standard of evidence slave owners needed to declare someone to be their own runaway property. The latter provision helped lead to the kidnapping of free black men and women, who now could not argue their case in court, but an even greater effect was that white Northerners previously indifferent to slavery were now forced to at least confront the issue, and many responded by accusing the South of undermining their own state laws. Far from saving the Union, as  Stephen Douglas believed, the Compromise merely brought the cause of division to the forefront of every mind in America, and it showed four years later with the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act . Still believing that Popular Sovereignty provided an effective way to heal tensions. Stephen Douglas led the Senate to pass a law allowing the newly-formed Kansas and Nebraska Territories choose whether or not to ban slavery, placing both Northerners and Southerners on edge over the eventual result, causing a good number of pro-slavery Missourians to move into Kansas and attempt to sway the locals through force. Abolitionists and Free Soilers responded by moving in as well and attacking pro-slavery activists, setting off a border war between settlers. Kansas ultimately did enter the Union as a Free State, but not without the deaths of over 100 people, guerillas and civilians alike. 

Though the various compromises made over slavery and the western territories helped keep the Union together longer for decades, they ultimately failed to deal with the root of the issue decisively. And the further undermining of the agreements did not stop there. Violence continued in Kansas, and in 1857, the Supreme Court issued the infamous Dred Scott Decision , which declared that Congress never had the authority to restrict slavery in the territories to begin with. But despite that enormous Southern victory, the election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the anti-slavery Republican Party, was too much for the Southern States to bear, and so the process of secession began. 

Further Reading:

• Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America : Ira Berlin 
• American Slavery: 1619-1877 : Peter Kolchin
• Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era : James M. McPherson
• Slavery: A World History : Milton Meltzer
• The Slaves Cause: A History of Abolition : Manisha Sinha

"Negro, Mulatto, or Indian man slave[s]": African Americans in the Rhode Island Regiments, 1775-1783

Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens

Ten Facts: Boston during the American Revolution

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Slavery’s western expansion created problems for the United States from the very start. Battles emerged over the westward expansion of slavery and over the role of the federal government in protecting the interests of slaveholders. Differences over the fate of slavery remained at the heart of American politics, especially as the United States expanded. After decades of conflict, Americans north and south began to fear that the opposite section of the country had seized control of the government. The national breakdown over slavery occurred over a long timeline and across a broad geography. Debates over slavery in the American West proved especially important. As the United States pressed westward, new questions arose as to whether those lands ought to be slave or free. The framers of the Constitution did a little, but not much, to help resolve these early questions. Article VI of the 1787 Northwest Ordinance banned slavery north and west of the Ohio River. Many took it to mean that the founders intended for slavery to die out, as why else would they prohibit its spread across such a huge swath of territory?

Source: The American Yawp. A Free and Online, Collaboratively Built American History Textbook, 2017-2018 Edition.

Westward Slavery

Debates over the framer’s intentions often led to confusion and bitter debate, but the actions of the new government left better clues as to what the new nation intended for slavery. Congress authorized the admission of Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792), with Vermont coming into the Union as a free state, and Kentucky coming in as a slave state. Though Americans at the time made relatively little of the balancing act suggested by the admission of a slave state and a free state, the pattern became increasingly important. By 1820, preserving the balance of free states and slave states would be seen as an issue of national security.

New pressures challenging the delicate balance again arose in the West. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 more than doubled the size of the United States. Questions immediately arose as to whether these lands would be made slave or free. Complicating matters further was the rapid expansion of plantation slavery fueled by the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. Yet even with the booming cotton economy, many Americans, including Thomas Jefferson, believed that slavery was a temporary institution and would soon die out. Tensions and debate concerning the expansion of slavery rose with the Louisiana Purchase.

Sectional differences tied to the expansion of plantation slavery in the West were especially important after 1803. The Ohio River Valley became an early fault line in the coming sectional struggle. Kentucky and Tennessee emerged as slave states, while free states Ohio, Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818) gained admission along the river’s northern banks. The Missouri Compromise

The Missouri Territory, by far the largest section of the Louisiana Territory, marked a turning point in the sectional crisis. In 1817, eager to put questions of whether this territory would be slave or free to rest, Congress opened its debate over Missouri’s admission to the Union. Congressman James Tallmadge of New York proposed laws that would gradually abolish slavery in the new state. Southern states responded with unanimous outrage, and the nation shuddered at an undeniable sectional controversy.

Congress reached a “compromise” on Missouri’s admission, largely through the work of Kentuckian Henry Clay. Maine would be admitted to the Union as a free state. In exchange, Missouri would come into the Union as a slave state. Legislators sought to prevent future conflicts by making Missouri’s southern border at 36° 30′ the new dividing line between slavery and freedom in the Louisiana Purchase lands. South of that line, running east from Missouri to the western edge of the Louisiana Purchase lands (near the present-day Texas panhandle) slavery could expand. North of it, encompassing what in 1820 was still “unorganized territory,” there would be no slavery.

The Missouri Compromise marked a major turning point in America’s sectional crisis because it exposed to the public just how divisive the slavery issue had grown. The debate filled newspapers, speeches, and Congressional records. Antislavery and pro-slavery positions from that point forward repeatedly returned to points made during the Missouri debates.

Missouri’s admission to the Union in 1821 exposed deep fault lines in American society. But the Compromise created a new sectional consensus that most white Americans, at least, hoped would ensure a lasting peace. Through sustained debates and arguments, white Americans agreed that the Constitution could do little about slavery where it already existed and that slavery, with the State of Missouri as the key exception, would never expand north of the 36°30′ line.

Democrats and Whigs fostered a moment of relative calm on the slavery debate, partially aided by gag rules prohibiting discussion of antislavery petitions. Arkansas (1836) and Michigan (1837) became the newest states admitted to the Union, with Arkansas coming in as a slave state, and Michigan coming in as a free state. Michigan gained admission through provisions established in the Northwest Ordinance, while Arkansas came in under the Missouri Compromise. Since its lands were below the line at 36° 30′ the admission of Arkansas did not threaten the Missouri consensus. The balancing act between slavery and freedom continued.

The Compromise of 1850

The year 1846 signaled new reversals to the antislavery cause, and the beginnings of a dark new era in American politics. President Polk and his Democratic allies were eager to see western lands brought into the Union and were especially anxious to see the borders of the nation extended to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Critics of the administration blasted these efforts as little more than land-grabs on behalf of slaveholders. Events in early 1846 seemed to justify antislavery complaints. Since Mexico had never recognized independent Texas, it continued to lay claim to its lands, even after the United States admitted it to the Union. In January 1846, Polk ordered troops to Texas to enforce claims stemming from its border dispute along the Rio Grande. Polk asked for war on May 11, 1846, and by September 1847, the United States had invaded Mexico City.

After 1846, the sectional crisis raged throughout North America. Debates swirled over whether the new lands would be slave or free. The South began defending slavery as a positive good. At the same time, Congressman David Wilmot submitted his “Wilmot Proviso” late in 1846, banning the expansion of slavery into the territories won from Mexico. The Proviso gained widespread northern support and even passed the House with bipartisan support, but it failed in the Senate.

The conclusion of the Mexican War gave rise to the 1848 Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo. The treaty infuriated antislavery leaders in the United States. The spoils gained from the Mexican War were impressive, and it was clear they would help expand slavery. The United States required Mexican officials to cede the California and New Mexico Territories for $15 million dollars. The new American territory included lands that would become the future states of California, Utah, Nevada, most of Arizona, and well as parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

The upheavals signaled by 1848 came to a quick end. President Taylor remained in office only a brief time until his unexpected death from a stomach ailment in 1850. While he was alive, Taylor and his administration struggled to find a good remedy. Increased clamoring for the admission of California, New Mexico, and Utah pushed the country closer to the edge. Gold had been discovered in California, and as thousands continued to pour onto the West Coast and through the trans-Mississippi West, the admission of new states loomed. In Utah, Mormons were also making claims to an independent state. By 1850, California wanted admission as a free state. With so many competing dynamics underway, and with the President dead and replaced by Whig Millard Fillmore, the 1850s were off to a troubling start.

Congressional leaders like Henry Clay and newer legislators like Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois were asked to broker a compromise, but this time it was clear no compromise could bridge all the diverging interests at play in the country. Clay eventually left Washington disheartened by affairs. It fell to young Stephen Douglas, then, to shepherd the bills through the Congress, which he in fact did. Legislators rallied behind the “Compromise of 1850,” an assemblage of bills passed late in 1850, which managed to keep the promises of the Missouri Compromise alive.

The Compromise of 1850 tried to offer something to everyone, but in the end it only worsened the sectional crisis. For southerners, the package offered a tough new fugitive slave law that empowered the federal government to deputize regular citizens in arresting runaways. The New Mexico territory and the Utah Territory, would be allowed to determine their own fates as slave or free states based on popular sovereignty. The Compromise also allowed territories to submit suits directly to the Supreme Court over the status of fugitive slaves within its bounds.

The admission of California as the newest free state in the Union cheered many northerners, but even the admission of a vast new state full of resources and rich agricultural lands was not enough. In addition to California, northerners also gained a ban on the slave trade in Washington, D.C., but not the full emancipation abolitionists had long advocated.

Westward Slavery – Video

Foner, E. The Mexican War and the Expansion of Slavery. (27 October 2014). [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkgkZwQ9HgQ

Foner, E. The Compromise of 1850. (27 October 2014). [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwralA6-yHM

Each time the United States acquired new territory in the early nineteenth century, a debate emerged regarding the expansion of slavery. The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; this purchase led to a debate concerning the expansion of slavery into this vast territory. Ultimately, this was resolved through the Missouri Compromise of 1817. Under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, Missouri’s southern border at 36° 30′ the new dividing line between slavery and freedom in the Louisiana Purchase lands. Also, the Missouri Compromise admitted Maine to the United States as a free state. In 1848, the United States gained possession of a vast swath of new territory as a result of the Mexican War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Again, a national debate raged regarding the expansion of slavery. This debate was resolved by the Compromise of 1850. Under the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the United States as a free state and the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C. Also, under the terms of this compromise, a strong fugitive slave law was put into effect and popular sovereignty was established in the New Mexico territory.

HIS114 – United States to 1870 Copyright © by The American Women's College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Westward Expansion and the American Civil War

by Gina Halabi

Slavery in the Western Territories

To many nineteenth-century Americans, the expansion of slavery into western territories caused a great deal of controversy. Since the drafting of the Constitution in 1787, the North and the South had grown further apart in terms of economy, ideology, and society. The North, especially, was afraid that the South would force its “peculiar institution” upon the entire Union. 1 These fears were realized when the expansion of slavery into western territories entered Congressional debates. The federal government, hoping to prevent a civil war, temporarily resolved the issue with compromises. As the compromises appeared to become more one-sided, however, sectional divides between the North and South became more pronounced.

• Watch Edward L. Ayers on the Civil War from The Gilder Lehrman Institute

The Sectional Divide between the North and the South

While the South utilized slavery to sustain its culture and grow cotton on plantations, the North prospered during the Industrial Revolution. Northern cities, the center of industry in the United States, became major metropolises due to an influx of immigrants. With this willing and cheap workforce, the North did not require a slave system. Although some northerners found the institution of slavery morally reprehensible, most did not believe in complete racial equality either. 2 Slavery became even more divisive when it threatened to expand westward because non-slaveholding white settlers did not want to compete with slaveholders in the new territories.

First Steps Towards Controlling Slavery and Westward Expansion

Politicians were forced to deal with the issue of slavery and its westward expansion as early as the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The States had previously maintained a shaky balance in the Senate with an equal number of representatives from both Slave and Free States. As Missouri prepared to enter the Union as a Slave State, this tentative balance threatened to come undone. Henry Clay of Kentucky temporarily solved the issue by crafting the Missouri Compromise, bringing Missouri into the Union as a Slave State and, as a balance, Maine entered as a Free State. The Compromise also made future bondage illegal in all areas of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30′ parallel with the exception of Missouri; all future states below this line would become Slave States. 3  This Compromise solved the immediate problem of slavery in the Louisiana Purchase by sweeping the real issue of slavery under the rug in order to placate both northern and southern politicians. In the years to come, politicians of both northern and southern states would not be so quick so compromise.

Conquests from Mexico

When the United States entered into a war with Mexico over Texas and its western territories, the issue of extending slavery in the west resurfaced in Congress. Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania first introduced a potential solution to the problem in 1846. His proposed amendment stated:

“… the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.” 4

Wilmot’s proviso suggested that slavery should be prohibited in any territories acquired from Mexico. This would encourage white farmers to move west and implied that slavery was not an institution that should stretch far beyond its borders. Fearful of the southern “Slave Power” in Congress, many northern politicians quickly backed Wilmot’s amendment. 5 Meanwhile, southern politicians railed that such an act was unconstitutional and vehemently blocked the passage of the Wilmot Proviso. 6  As a result, it never passed and the issue of slavery in westward territories remained a topic of heated debate.

Territories Becoming States

Congress was forced to revisit this issue yet again when California petitioned for statehood in 1849. Because California appeared to have anti-slavery inclinations, southern democrats were reluctant to let it enter the Union and disrupt the sectional balance in Congress. The resulting Compromise of 1850 was supposed to ensure that the interests of both sides remained intact. For the North, the Compromise guaranteed that California would enter the Union as a Free State and the slave trade would end in the District of Columbia. For the South, the Compromise promised that popular sovereignty would decide the question of slavery in the Utah and New Mexico territories. Furthermore, the Compromise reshaped the existing Fugitive Slave Act and required northerners to help capture runaway slaves. 7  This Act enraged the people of the North as it was a direct violation of their state laws and many argued that the “people of the free states are made [plantation owners’] constables and slave-catchers, bound as ‘good citizens’ to engage in a business at which their humanity must revolt…” 8

Kansas-Nebraska Act

Just four years later in 1854, new statehood controversies arose and forced the issue of slavery back into Congress. Kansas and Nebraska were both large territories petitioning for statehood. However, southerners opposed their admittance because the Missouri Compromise mandated that these two territories would enter as Free states. To satisfy southern states already threatening session, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 9  This new act repealed the Missouri Compromise; instead, the people living in Kansas and Nebraska would vote to determine the fate of the states. 10  When voters from nearby Missouri snuck into Kansas in order to vote to make the territory a slave state, tensions between the two sides exploded. War broke out in Kansas between pro-slavery sympathizers and abolitionists, earning it the nickname “bleeding Kansas.” 11  The violence in the west would soon spread east.

Check out this clip which highlights the escalating violence between the north and south on the issue of westward expansion:

The Beginnings of the Civil War

The fighting in Kansas foreshadowed the great fighting that would take place just six years later. The compromises of the early nineteenth century did not settle the issue of slavery and westward expansion. Instead, they suppressed the issue and acted as temporary salves. However, as the compromises appeared to benefit Slave States more often than they did Free States, sectional antagonisms between the North and the South were becoming more distinct. Ultimately, negotiations unraveled and a bloody Civil War erupted.

• Listen to James Oakes: Emancipation and the Question of Agency  from The Gilder Lehrman Institute

This article helps answer “What role did western expansion play in the Civil War?” Themes: causes of the Civil War, the Civil War and Western Expansion, slavery, slavery and western expansion, Wilmot’s Proviso, Antebellum America, Bleeding Kansas, Civil War, Western Expansion, The West, the American West, African American history, economic history

Imagining the West, territorial expansion, and the politics of slavery

Asher B. Durand, Progress (The Advance of Civilization) , 1853, oil on canvas, 58 7/16 x 82 1/4 x 4 3/8 inches (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Lush vegetation, broad rivers, rich farmland, spectacular mountains. In the 19th century, the western part of what is now the United States held the imagination of U.S. citizens as a place of almost limitless possibility. This vision of the West’s abundant opportunity is celebrated in Asher B. Durand’s painting Progress— commissioned by a railroad baron (whose own fortunes were tied up with westward expansion). [1]

Train (detail), Asher B. Durand, Progress (The Advance of Civilization) , 1853, oil on canvas, 58 7/16 x 82 1/4 x 4 3/8 inches (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In the painting, we see canals, railroads, and steamships crisscross the landscape, and towns, and churches spring up, all bathed in the light of the sun. In the shadowed foreground on the left, a small group of Indigenous Americans, set in a dark primeval forest, look out at the gleaming promise of Euro-American progress. At the lower right, white settlers are shown having built a homestead—beginning the process of taming the wilderness.

Left: Indigenous people look on (detail), right: Settler homestead (detail); Asher B. Durand, Progress (The Advance of Civilization) , 1853, oil on canvas, 58 7/16 x 82 1/4 x 4 3/8 inches (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; photos: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

This was the essence of the once-broadly-held concept of Manifest Destiny : that the United States had a divine, “manifest” (self-evident) mission to create a nation that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, spreading the light of democracy and the word of God.

Divine providence as symbolized by the sun (detail), Asher B. Durand, Progress (The Advance of Civilization) , 1853, oil on canvas, 58 7/16 x 82 1/4 x 4 3/8 inches (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Indigenous peoples, slavery, and the politics of geography

Even before the term Manifest Destiny was coined, the British colonists wanted to move west. In fact, they sought independence in part because of their frustration with Britain’s intent to honor its treaties with Indigenous allies (that barred British subjects from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains). [2]  

A 1767 map of the placement of British military forces in North America. Daniel Paterson, Cantonment of His Majesty’s forces in N. America according to the disposition now made & to be completed as soon as practicable taken from the general distribution dated at New York, 29th. March, 1767 ( Library of Congress )

A map of the placement of British military forces in North America from 1767 directed that lands between the British colonies on the eastern seaboard and the inland French territory of Louisiana were “reserved for the Indians.” Victory in the American Revolution gave citizens of the new United States license, as they saw it, to invade western lands and remove the Indigenous peoples there.

But what kind of nation would it be? At the same time that the United States was laying claim to enormous new territories—from the 1803 Louisiana Purchase to the 1848 Mexican Cession —the citizens of its existing states were becoming increasingly divided by region on the issue of slavery. 

Slavery had existed in the 13 British colonies that would become the United States, but during the late 18th and early 19th centuries the geography of slavery began to shift. Northern states gradually outlawed slavery, often citing incompatibility with the principles of freedom and democracy espoused in support of the American Revolution.

Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick, miniature portrait of Elizabeth Freeman (Mumbet), 1811, watercolor on ivory, 7.5 cm x 5.5 cm ( Massachusetts Historical Society )

As an example, Elizabeth Freeman successfully sued for her own freedom (in the case Brom and Bett v. Ashley , 1781) arguing that the state’s Bill of Rights guaranteed her freedom and equality. As a result, Massachusetts became the only state in the Union to end slavery because it was declared unconstitutional by a court. Here we see Freeman portrayed in watercolor on a precious piece of ivory. She looks directly at the viewer with a gently critical gaze. Her hair, just visible under her bonnet, has turned white, and her age is also expressed through the lines on her face. This fierce advocate for the abolition of slavery appears both alert and riveting. 

Southern states, by contrast, passed laws further restricting the lives of enslaved people after the American Revolution. For example, numerous southern states passed anti-literacy laws that made it illegal for enslaved people to read or write (an enslaved person who was literate was perceived as more threatening). These repressive measures were taken just as white citizens became more and more dependent on enslaved people as laborers and as capital. It is important to note, however, that the northern states also profited from slavery. As late as the 1850s, the labor of the enslaved powered profitable northern textile mills and the New York Cotton Exchange. Nevertheless, by the mid-19th century, opinions on slavery in northern states and southern states had largely diverged.

The promise of the “West” crystallized these competing views. In the white imagination, the “West” encompassed any land beyond the Appalachian mountains (not limited to the present-day borders of the United States). White farmers from northern states feared that wealthy slaveholders would dominate the West and limit their opportunities there. Enslavers, on the other hand, feared that if slavery was barred in the West, their profitable system and the culture built upon it would soon wither and die. Neither side spared much thought for the people who already lived on the lands such as Indigenous people, Mexican Americans , or Californios , onto which these white people projected these hopes and fears.

Over the course of the 19th century, westward migration and the establishment of American settlements with and without slavery pushed Indigenous and Hispanic peoples off of their lands, and fueled the flames that would erupt in the Civil War.

Slavery and westward expansion

Who moved west, and why, differed by region. White northerners (who were increasingly less likely to own enslaved people as the 19th century progressed) moved westward to establish small farms. White southerners also moved westward in search of new land that might support ranching or large-scale agriculture—for example, cotton cultivation. Those southerners who owned enslaved people often sent them ahead to clear this new land, and to extend the plantation system westward.

Maps credit: Lincoln Mullen, “ The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790–1860 ,” interactive map, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.9825, Minnesota Population Center, National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0 (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 2011) . Note that census data is incomplete and likely underestimates the enslaved population (along with the population as a whole).

The two maps above illustrate how slavery changed over time as the United States expanded westward: in 1800, there was a significant population of enslaved people in northern states (those above the blue line) and an even larger enslaved population concentrated along the coasts of the southern states. By 1850, slavery was nearly gone in northern states (including the new states to their west). In contrast, the number of enslaved people both increased and spread in the southern states (including the new states to their west).

Free states, slave states

The political imperatives of slavery were baked into the very framework of the United States. After much debate, the framers of the Constitution agreed to allow states to count three-fifths of their enslaved population toward their total population, even though enslaved people lacked citizenship rights. This was important because representation (and therefore voting power) in the legislative branch of the U.S. government was tied to the number of states and the size of their populations. New states got equal voting power with existing states in the upper house of the legislature (the Senate), and states with higher populations had more votes in the lower house (the House of Representatives). Therefore the question of whether new states would permit slavery was highly charged as it would permanently alter the balance of power between free and slave states. 

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, the United States nearly doubled in size. Less than two decades later, and as a result, the question of slavery in states carved out of new territories became one with lasting political consequences. More states where slavery was permitted meant more pro-slavery senators, perhaps eventually enough to control the government and make slavery legal everywhere. The opposite was also true: if abolitionist sentiment grew along with the northern population and the number of free states, anti-slavery politicians might gain control of government and strip enslavers of their valuable human property.

Map depicting U.S. states and territories in 1820. The Missouri Compromise admitted Maine as a free state, and then permitted Missouri to organize as a slave state, drawing a line across Missouri’s southern border above which slavery would not be permitted in the unorganized territory (underlying map © Google)

Expansion, crisis, and war

With so much riding on the balance of power, there were several crisis points in the 19th century as new states joined the Union. The first was the Missouri Crisis of 1819 , when the residents of the territory of Missouri (formed on land gained in the Louisiana Purchase) requested an enabling bill from Congress to begin the process of statehood. A House representative from New York proposed an amendment that would provide for gradual emancipation in Missouri, but southern representatives reacted angrily to the amendment, threatening secession. It took months for Congress to work out the “Missouri Compromise”: that Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state at the same time that Maine entered as a free state, and slavery would be banned in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase territory north of Missouri’s southern border. 

But the Missouri Compromise did nothing to solve the underlying problem, and slavery continued, with the nation bitterly divided over its future. To avoid repeating the crisis, new “free” and “slave” states were admitted more or less in pairs in the succeeding decades: Arkansas and Michigan, Florida and Iowa. Congress sat on the Republic of Texas’s request for annexation for nearly a decade to avoid stirring up sectional tensions. It was only after the ardent expansionist and slaveholder James K. Polk took office as president in 1845 that the United States moved forward with claiming Texas. The U.S. also provoked a war with Mexico in 1846 in an effort to gain Mexican territory and the valuable Pacific ports of California.

George Caleb Bingham, Country Politician , 1849, oil on canvas, 51.8 x 61cm ( de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco ; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

As with the Missouri Compromise, a firestorm erupted in Congress early in the Mexican-American War when David Wilmot, an anti-slavery Democrat from Pennsylvania, introduced an amendment to a military appropriations bill in Congress. This “proviso” proposed to outlaw slavery in any territory that might be gained from Mexico in the ongoing war. George Caleb Bingham was a painter, a Whig , and a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. His canvas, Country Politician was first exhibited as Congress debated Wilmot’s amendment. Bingham depicts a politician (at right) earnestly addressing an older voter (at left), perhaps to persuade him to support the Wilmot Proviso. The artist here focuses on the political choices that citizens faced, including slavery and its future.

During the 1850s, disputes over the fate of slavery in the new western territories raged in Congress and among the general public. The Gold Rush in California in 1849 hastened immigration to the West. The most serious political conflicts over slavery, however, took place in the Great Plains region. Violence erupted when the existing ban on slavery north of the Missouri Compromise line (see map above) was overturned in favor of the doctrine of “popular sovereignty,” which allowed territories to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. This resulted from the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which also stripped the Indigenous residents of their land rights and opened the territory to settlers. Thousands of armed pro- and anti-slavery settlers poured into the Kansas Territory to influence whether it would be free or would allow slavery. Dozens died in the skirmishes that followed, a period known as Bleeding Kansas .

Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act brought anti-slavery members of the Democratic and Whig parties together to form a major new national party, the Republican Party, which opposed the extension of slavery into the West. When Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election in November of 1860, slaveholders feared that their enemies had secured the political power to defeat them at last. In December of 1860, slave states in the deep South began to secede in anticipation of potential legislation to limit slavery. The Civil War began shortly thereafter. 

What was it about the West that so captivated white Americans that they went so far as to shed blood to determine its future? All sides envisioned using the West’s resources—fertile land for farming and grazing, abundant forests for timbering and trapping, rich mines for extracting mineral wealth—for their own gain.

William S. Jewett, The Promised Land—The Grayson Family , 1850, oil on canvas, 50 3/4 x 64 inches ( Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection )

Andrew Jackson Grayson, whose family was among the earliest U.S. settlers to move to California in 1846, commissioned this painting of their arrival in 1850. Grayson dictated many of the painting’s details to the artist, William S. Jewett, including the clothing and the site in the Sierra Nevadas, where he claimed that they had first laid eyes on the plains of California. The painting’s Biblical overtones—its name, The Promised Land , recalling the prophet Moses, and its richly dressed family of three evoking the Holy Family —reinforced the Manifest Destiny notion that God sanctioned white settlement of the West (where a diverse population of Indigenous and Hispanic people already lived). The painting depicts California empty of people, erasing the region’s inhabitants whom white settlers persecuted and murdered as they sought control of the land. Grayson himself joined the fighting in the Mexican-American War (which would wrest California from Mexico), as part of the California Battalion, led by the explorer and army officer John C. Frémont. 

Meade Brothers Studio, John Charles Frémont, c. 1856, photograph, 9.2 x 5.7 cm ( National Portrait Gallery , Smithsonian Institution)

Frémont and violence against Native Americans

Frémont would become California’s first Senator. He held an anti-slavery position, but also had a near total disregard for Indigenous people and their cultures, typical of white people at this time. He led several massacres against Indigenous people, including the Sacramento River Massacre (1846), in which he and his men killed at least 120 Wintu men, women, and children (with some estimates of the dead as high as 700). Frémont directly supported the ideology of Manifest Destiny—through his violence against the Native populations of California, and by encouraging settlers in California to revolt against the Mexican government. In 1846, whites did in fact briefly establish the California Republic (in a move similar to the Texas Revolution a decade earlier), eventually ceding control of the region to U.S. Army forces. Despite his aggression toward Native Americans and the Spanish, Frémont was a fierce anti-slavery politician, and in 1856, he became the first Republican presidential candidate.

Solomon Nunes Carvalho, [View of a Cheyenne village at Big Timbers, in present-day Colorado, with four large tipis standing at the edge of a wooded area. Frame with pemmican or hides hanging at the right; two figures, facing camera, standing to the left of center], between 1853 and 1860, daguerreotype ( Library of Congress )

Beyond the West: Latin America and the quest for new slave states

Proslavery expansionists also attempted the military takeover (called filibustering ) of some Latin American countries, whose warm climates were suitable for plantation agriculture. Some of the regions already had systems of slavery, making them excellent candidates for an expansion of U.S. slavery. 

For example, in the early 1850s, U.S. citizen William Walker led an illegal war with Mexico to create independent slaveholding republics, including the Republic of Lower California in what is today northern Mexico. An American jury acquitted Walker for violating the Neutrality Act of 1794, which barred American citizens from waging war against any country at peace with the United States. In 1856, Walker launched an invasion of Nicaragua, and took control of the country for nearly a year before a coalition of Central American armies removed him from office.

Narciso López, Gefe de los Piratas Invasores (Leader of the Invading Pirates) , 19 de Mayo de 1850 , 1850; color lithograph by Marq, lithographer; Víctor Patricio de Landaluze, draftsman (The Historic New Orleans Collection). This lithograph was part of a series depicting López’s attempt to invade Cardenás, Cuba, as part of a scheme of U.S. annexation.

Flag of Cuba

Similarly, between 1848 and 1851 Cuban exile Narciso López, who was financed by U.S. sugar growers (an industry reliant on slave labor), organized several filibustering expeditions to Cuba, which was then controlled by Spain. He aimed to expand U.S. sugar production to Cuba, where slavery was legal, and to add Cuba to the U.S. as yet another slave state. In the lithograph above, López is depicted leading a group of armed men in the Cuban town of Cardenás. They are flying a flag that independent Cuba would adopt as its own in 1902. During López’s final Cuban campaign, he was captured and executed along with dozens of U.S. citizens who had attempted to take the island from the Spanish.

The expansionist mindset

Although the stories of the failed states that William Walker and Narciso López pursued may seem like a detour from the story of U.S. westward expansion, they illustrate the breadth of the expansionist mindset. Today, the territorial boundaries of the greater United States (as well as those of the individual states within it) may seem inevitable and fixed, but when U.S. citizens looked beyond their established borders in the mid-19th century, they saw possibility in many directions. There could be many dozens of new states west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Texas. There could be—and eventually would be—American territories and states on Pacific islands, Caribbean islands, and the far north. The whole western hemisphere might be up for grabs. 

With these wild opportunities came fears on both sides. Each new state in the Union meant one side or the other accrued more power in government and more influence on the future of American society. It was only in 1860, when the election of an antislavery president demonstrated that enslavers had lost the game of states for good, that they turned to warfare.

[1] Rebecca Bedell, “Asher Durand’s Progress Reconsidered,” Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art,  no. 1 (Spring 2019) .

[2] This was the Proclamation of 1763.

Additional resources

Learn more about Asher B. Durand at The Met. 

See lesson plans about Manifest Destiny at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Amy S. Greenberg,  A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico  (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012).

Learn more about Solomon Nunes Carvalho’s expedition photographs at the Library of Congress.

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Western Expansion and Its Influence on Social Reforms and Slavery Essay

Introduction, works cited.

The western expansion refers to the process whereby the Americans moved away from their original 13 colonies in the 1800s, towards the west which was encouraged by explorers like Lewis and Clarke. These explore braved nature and hostile American natives in order to explore the lands at the west. They were later followed by the settlers. The American colonists took one and a half-century to expanding colonists took fifty years to push their expansion up to the Mississippi River, (Counter.E.M, 1926).

The Americans were inspired by a notion that they had a manifest destiny which promoted their belief that it was their destiny to stretch across the American continent. Another reason for the expansion was the American’s search for cheap land, with the Texas edge of settlement being pushed by the year 1850. The expansion further extended to the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest. The ‘Manifest Destiny’ as a belief discouraged United States expansion from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean.

In the 1840s the Western United States (Texas, Oregon territory, and Mexican Cession ) was proposed to be annexed. The expansion era is also referred to as the “Age of Manifest Destiny”, from the end of the War of 1813 era to the beginning of the American Civil war. States that were first acquired by the Americans during the expansion include; Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio between 1791and 1803. After the 1812 war, expansion resulted in the statehood of Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, and Missouri.

The expansion involved laying of siege, drafting of Acts to make expansion easier (for example Dawes Severalty Act), Impresarios, Overland trails, and building of trail roads. The Western expansion, in turn, affected social reforms and slavery in America. In this paper, the influences of western expansion on social reforms (women reforms) and slavery will be discussed.

Social Reforms

Social reforms refer to the process that involves a gradual change in certain aspects of society. A society always holds particular views or opinions. However, these opinions may be challenged and changes advocated about them in society. The changes are undertaken through a gradual process that can also be referred to as social reforms. From the colonial era, both unmarried women and men enjoyed equal legal rights though the same law advocated for early marriage in women.

The social injustices to women before the Western expansion were many and very discriminatory. After early marriage, women lost the equal rights with men that they previously enjoyed before marriage. In addition, women were not allowed to vote during elections and their education rights were undermined by limitations to only reading, writing, music, needlework, and dancing. The western expansion brought with it social reforms to stop the above-mentioned injustices against women.

Social reforms made many women realize their unequal position in society during the Western expansion. Women were prohibited from speaking in any public place before the expansion. During the expansion, a Scottish lecturer and journalist Frances Wright visited America in the 1820s. This started off the social reforms in America with Wright speaking out about the social injustices against women.

This encouraged women to speak out about the injustices in their society. Wright further shocked her audiences by her views that not only advocated for women’s rights but also encouraged women to seek information on birth control and divorce issues. Wright’s public views made women realize that their rights are denied and they should take measures to fight for their rights.

Women by the 1840s drew up a declaration to demand equal rights to those of the men. American women formed a group that would forge the women’s rights movement led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. A women’s rights convention was organized at Seneca Falls in New York. This was the first women’s convention in the world. Delegates who attended the convention drafted a declaration, which demanded equality through the law. They demanded rights included the women’s right to vote.

Women were able to get equal opportunities in education with men. Initially, women were only allowed to learn how to read and write in addition to music, dancing, and needlework. While men were offered a chance to learn up to the higher levels of education, women were limited to only reading and writing. It was difficult for women to give their opinion on professional matters, unlike the men. With the Western expansion, women were able to fight for their rights to be educated and even secure professional employment later.

With an equal opportunity to education, women consequently demanded an equal opportunity to employment. When women were denied a chance to advance in education their employment was compromised too. With a good opportunity to get educated, women gained professional skills and knowledge that enabled them to secure professional employment.

Before the Western expansion, women had no right to own property in their own name. In 1848 Ernestine Rose pushed for the passing of a law in New York, which allowed married women to own their property under their name. The law referred to as the married women’s property Act led other state legislatures in enacting similar laws in their states. Women through these reforms were able to own property even though they were married.

Before the expansion women played no role in the election of the leaders. However in 1859 teamwork by Elizabeth Cady, Ernestine Rose and Susan B. founded the National woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). This movement was very instrumental in advocating for a constitutional amendment that would allow women to vote. The amendments to the constitution gave women an equal right to vote just like men. The Western expansion in the US played an important role in the social changes that prevented undermining of women’s rights and empowered them in the later years.

A slave refers to a person who is denied his or her personal freedom and is compelled to work without pay. Slaves are held against their will and are either captured or purchased to work without leaving or receiving compensation for their labor,( James O.H et al.2005 ). A social-economic system that allows the use of slaves for labor is known as slavery.

The western expansion resulted in the settlement of the Americans to the West region. Agriculture in the already acquired lands demanded labor in the farms. Within the United States boundaries, slavery for life was legal from 1554 to 1865 (James O.H. et al 2005). In most cases, the whites held the black slaves though some native Americans and few blacks also held black slaves. Slaves were used in agriculture, with the majority of slaves being held in the Southern United States. According to a US census in 1860, 15 states that had legalized slavery held almost four million slaves. While slavery in the Northwest Territory was banned in 1787 through the Northwest ordinance, slavery continued in the South.

Western expansion contributed very greatly to the growth of the slavery system. Expansion by Americans led to the establishment of huge agricultural farms. The southern region of America encouraged slavery and fought against any measures that would end it. Slave labor as an economic factor made slavery very profitable in running the agricultural farms.

Earlier growth of the cotton industry and new inventions led to the Industrial Revolution that increased the demand for raw cotton. Consequently, new lands were opened through the expansion process after 1812 greatly extending land available for cotton cultivation. The owners of these agricultural lands increased the number of slaves in their farms while new farms brought in the slaves to provide labor.

Sugarcane production required intensive labor, which demanded labor that was easily provided by slaves. Slavery extension in the South continued with the rich hot lands of southeastern Louisiana providing ideal sugar cane profits. Tobacco growers took slaves with them after they moved to the west.

Slavery in agriculture from settlements in the west as a result of expansion in the 18 th and 19 th centuries caused Industrial Revolution. The establishment of industries encouraged high demands for raw materials. Cheap labor from slaves increased profits that saw further increase of industries to welcome industrial Revolution in the US.

Western expansion in the U.S caused the deaths of so many slaves. The slave owners and the overseers were authorized to whip and brutalize both the compliant and non-compliant slaves. Slaves were exposed to very hard work and only provided with inadequate and poor nutritional food. Furthermore, the agricultural plantations were located in mosquito-prone areas which resulted in many slaves’ death from malaria. The death toll of the slaves rose so much that the plantation owners opted to rent out slaves rather than own them,(Otton.. H.O,2004). The expansion was very influential in promoting slavery in addition to causing their deaths. The slavery system of owning slaves was also changed to the system of renting them to combat the high death rates of the slaves.

The expansion to the west by the Americans saw the rebellion by the slaves in the plantation farms. The slaves were normally treated very brutally by the farm owners which compelled the slaves to fight back. As owners switched to brutal methods of punishing slaves(trading their relatives for profit, punishment, or as payment to debts), slaves retaliated by killing the owners, burning their barns, killing their horses, and staging work slowdowns. The slave’s resistance later raised concerns for this system which later saved them from this brutal system (Blassingame. J.W,1977).

The slavery that was practiced during the 18 th and 19 th century, contributed greatly to the illiteracy of slaves even after the reconstruction when slavery was abolished. After Nat Turner’s rebellion, laws were put into place that prohibited the education of black slaves, free blacks, and children of blacks and whites. When slavery was abolished, illiteracy was identified as a major challenge for people seeking to join free enterprise and support themselves during reconstruction.

On the other hand, western expansion in the Northern region encouraged the banning of the slavery system. The Northwest Territory of the US banned the use of slaves to provide labor. Though the South continued with the slavery system, the banning of slavery through the Northwest ordinance reduced the number of slaves forced to work on farms.

At the beginning of the 19 th century, slavery became an issue of national concern. In the 1850s slavery system in newly found agricultural lands failed to be banned by the political leaders in the US. Eleven states left the US union and proclaimed themselves an independent nation after 1860. this was after the election of Abraham Lincoln as US president. These states included; South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The Confederate later surrendered after the American civil war. Slavery was finally abolished in Dec 1865 through a congress ratified 13 th amendment to the US constitution. Though the Western expansion had led to the growth of the slavery system in the US it finally led to the abolishment of the same system.

Blassingame.J.W,1977.Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews and Autobiographies. Louisiana State University Press. Louisiana.

Coutner.E.M,1926.The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky.pp.268-270.

James O.H and Loise.E.H.2005.Slavery and the Making of America.New York: Oxford University Press,p.7.

Otton.. H.O,2004.Historians and the extent of Slave Ownership in the Southern United States. Civil War History.

The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.

Outline of American History. 2005.

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1. IvyPanda . "Western Expansion and Its Influence on Social Reforms and Slavery." March 11, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/western-expansion-and-its-influence-on-social-reforms-and-slavery/.

Bibliography

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Manifest Destinies: America's Westward Expansion and the Road to the Civil War

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Michael A. Morrison, Manifest Destinies: America's Westward Expansion and the Road to the Civil War, Journal of American History , Volume 98, Issue 2, September 2011, Page 525, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jar269

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Steven E. Woodworth's sweeping, accessible, and insightful examination of the Mexican-American War era adds a fresh dimension to the origins and unhappy consequences of western expansion during the 1840s. Woodworth maintains that Texas annexation was “merely one more step in the fulfillment of the nation's God-given destiny of overspreading the continent with its free—if, perhaps for the moment, imperfect—institutions” (p. 121). Public opinion on annexation was divided along party lines. Whigs opposed it because they feared that a too-rapid expansion into the West would weaken the republic, while northern Whigs based their opposition on antislavery grounds. Solid Democratic support seemed to indicate that “Manifest Destiny still reached across the sectional divide” (p. 141). Yet northern Democrats viewed annexation as national expansion, while southern party members considered it a proslavery measure. More ominously, as Henry Clay discovered to his chagrin in 1844, western expansion and the implicit question of slavery extension began to eclipse and overshadow the economic issues—a national bank, tariff, internal improvements—that had given rise to and shaped the second-party system.

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Westward Expansion

By: History.com Editors

Updated: September 30, 2019 | Original: December 15, 2009

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. (“Those who labor in the earth,” he wrote, “are the chosen people of God.”) In order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal population of virtuous yeomen, the United States would have to continue to expand. The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but it is not just the story of Jefferson’s expanding “empire of liberty.” On the contrary, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion “very nearly destroy[ed] the republic.”

Manifest Destiny

By 1840, nearly 7 million Americans–40 percent of the nation’s population–lived in the trans-Appalachian West. Following a trail blazed by Lewis and Clark , most of these people had left their homes in the East in search of economic opportunity. Like Thomas Jefferson , many of these pioneers associated westward migration, land ownership and farming with freedom. In Europe, large numbers of factory workers formed a dependent and seemingly permanent working class; by contrast, in the United States, the western frontier offered the possibility of independence and upward mobility for all. In 1843, one thousand pioneers took to the Oregon Trail as part of the “ Great Emigration .”

Did you know? In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase added about 30,000 square miles of Mexican territory to the United States and fixed the boundaries of the “lower 48” where they are today.

In 1845, a journalist named John O’Sullivan put a name to the idea that helped pull many pioneers toward the western frontier. Westward migration was an essential part of the republican project, he argued, and it was Americans’ “ manifest destiny ” to carry the “great experiment of liberty” to the edge of the continent: to “overspread and to possess the whole of the [land] which Providence has given us,” O’Sullivan wrote. The survival of American freedom depended on it.

Westward Expansion and Slavery

Meanwhile, the question of whether or not slavery would be allowed in the new western states shadowed every conversation about the frontier. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had attempted to resolve this question: It had admitted Missouri to the union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, preserving the fragile balance in Congress. More important, it had stipulated that in the future, slavery would be prohibited north of the southern boundary of Missouri (the 36º30’ parallel) in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase .

However, the Missouri Compromise did not apply to new territories that were not part of the Louisiana Purchase, and so the issue of slavery continued to fester as the nation expanded. The Southern economy grew increasingly dependent on “King Cotton” and the system of forced labor that sustained it. Meanwhile, more and more Northerners came to believed that the expansion of slavery impinged upon their own liberty, both as citizens–the pro-slavery majority in Congress did not seem to represent their interests–and as yeoman farmers. They did not necessarily object to slavery itself, but they resented the way its expansion seemed to interfere with their own economic opportunity.

Westward Expansion and the Mexican War

Despite this sectional conflict, Americans kept on migrating West in the years after the Missouri Compromise was adopted. Thousands of people crossed the Rockies to the Oregon Territory, which belonged to Great Britain, and thousands more moved into the Mexican territories of California , New Mexico and Texas . In 1837, American settlers in Texas joined with their Tejano neighbors (Texans of Spanish origin) and won independence from Mexico. They petitioned to join the United States as a slave state.

This promised to upset the careful balance that the Missouri Compromise had achieved, and the annexation of Texas and other Mexican territories did not become a political priority until the enthusiastically expansionist cotton planter James K. Polk was elected to the presidency in 1844. Thanks to the maneuvering of Polk and his allies, Texas joined the union as a slave state in February 1846; in June, after negotiations with Great Britain, Oregon joined as a free state.

That same month, Polk declared war against Mexico , claiming (falsely) that the Mexican army had “invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil.” The Mexican-American War proved to be relatively unpopular, in part because many Northerners objected to what they saw as a war to expand the “slaveocracy.” In 1846, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot attached a proviso to a war-appropriations bill declaring that slavery should not be permitted in any part of the Mexican territory that the U.S. might acquire. Wilmot’s measure failed to pass, but it made explicit once again the sectional conflict that haunted the process of westward expansion.

Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850

In 1848, the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War and added more than 1 million square miles, an area larger than the Louisiana Purchase, to the United States. The acquisition of this land re-opened the question that the Missouri Compromise had ostensibly settled: What would be the status of slavery in new American territories? After two years of increasingly volatile debate over the issue, Kentucky Senator Henry Clay proposed another compromise. It had four parts: first, California would enter the Union as a free state; second, the status of slavery in the rest of the Mexican territory would be decided by the people who lived there; third, the slave trade (but not slavery) would be abolished in Washington , D.C.; and fourth, a new Fugitive Slave Act would enable Southerners to reclaim runaway slaves who had escaped to Northern states where slavery was not allowed.

Bleeding Kansas

But the larger question remained unanswered. In 1854, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed that two new states, Kansas and Nebraska , be established in the Louisiana Purchase west of Iowa and Missouri. According to the terms of the Missouri Compromise, both new states would prohibit slavery because both were north of the 36º30’ parallel. However, since no Southern legislator would approve a plan that would give more power to “free-soil” Northerners, Douglas came up with a middle ground that he called “popular sovereignty”: letting the settlers of the territories decide for themselves whether their states would be slave or free.

Northerners were outraged: Douglas, in their view, had caved to the demands of the “slaveocracy” at their expense. The battle for Kansas and Nebraska became a battle for the soul of the nation. Emigrants from Northern and Southern states tried to influence the vote. For example, thousands of Missourians flooded into Kansas in 1854 and 1855 to vote (fraudulently) in favor of slavery. “Free-soil” settlers established a rival government, and soon Kansas spiraled into civil war. Hundreds of people died in the fighting that ensued, known as “ Bleeding Kansas .”

A decade later, the civil war in Kansas over the expansion of slavery was followed by a national civil war over the same issue. As Thomas Jefferson had predicted, it was the question of slavery in the West–a place that seemed to be the emblem of American freedom–that proved to be “the knell of the union.”

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Westward Expansion

A significant push toward the west coast of North America began in the 1810s. It was intensified by the belief in manifest destiny, federally issued Indian removal acts, and economic promise. Pioneers traveled to Oregon and California using a network of trails leading west. In 1893 historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier closed, citing the 1890 census as evidence, and with that, the period of westward expansion ended.

Explore these resources to learn more about what happened between 1810 and 1893, as immigrants, American Indians, United States citizens, and freed slaves moved west.

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Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion

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Art of the Americas to World War I

Course: art of the americas to world war i   >   unit 7.

• Introduction to the U.S. Civil War in art
• “The Immediate Cause of the Civil War,” an introduction
• The problem of picturing slavery
• Images in a divided world

Imagining the West, territorial expansion, and the politics of slavery

• Experiences of the U.S. Civil War, an introduction
• The work of war
• Homes and families
• Refugees, prisoners, and displacement
• Memory and commemoration of the U.S. Civil War, an introduction
• The Lost Cause and Confederate memory
• Abraham Lincoln and northern memory

Indigenous peoples, slavery, and the politics of geography

Slavery and westward expansion, free states, slave states, expansion, crisis, and war, frémont and violence against native americans, beyond the west: latin america and the quest for new slave states, the expansionist mindset, want to join the conversation.

Home — Essay Samples — History — History of the United States — Westward Expansion

Essays on Westward Expansion

🌄 westward expansion: journey to the wild west.

Hey, history buffs! Ever wondered about Westward Expansion? It's an epic tale of adventure and discovery in the American frontier. So, why write an essay about it? Well, it's not just a school thing; it's a chance to relive the thrilling journey of pioneers, cowboys, and trailblazers who shaped the West. Let's saddle up and explore the frontier! 🤠

📝 Westward Expansion Essay Topics: Riding into the Unknown

Choosing the right topic for your Westward Expansion essay is key. You want to dive into something that sparks your curiosity. Check out these ideas:

🚀 Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was the driving force behind Westward Expansion. Here are some essay topics to consider:

• What is Manifest Destiny, and how did it shape the Westward Expansion?
• Debates surrounding Manifest Destiny: expansion or imperialism?
• Notable figures who championed Manifest Destiny and their impact.
• The consequences of Manifest Destiny on indigenous peoples and nations.

🌟 Pioneers and Explorers

The West was explored by brave pioneers and adventurers. Explore these essay topics:

• The Oregon Trail: the challenges and triumphs of westward migration.
• The famous Lewis and Clark expedition: mapping the unknown West.
• Frontiersmen and women who made their mark on the wilderness.
• The Gold Rushes: how gold fever shaped the West and its communities.

⚔️ Indigenous Peoples and Conflicts

The Westward Expansion had a significant impact on indigenous populations. These essay topics delve into this complex history:

• The displacement and challenges faced by Native American tribes.
• Notable Native American leaders and their resistance efforts.
• Treaties and conflicts between settlers and indigenous peoples.
• Trail of Tears: the tragic journey of the Cherokee Nation.

🏙️ Impact on Society

Westward Expansion transformed American society. Explore these essay ideas:

• How Westward Expansion contributed to the growth of cities and urbanization.
• The role of women in shaping the West and advocating for their rights.
• The impact of the Homestead Act on land ownership and farming in the West.
• The legacy of the Wild West in American culture and media.

✍️ Westward Expansion Essay Example

📜 thesis statement examples.

1. "Westward Expansion, driven by the concept of Manifest Destiny, was a pivotal period in American history that transformed the nation's landscape, culture, and relationships with indigenous peoples. This essay explores the motivations, challenges, and consequences of this extraordinary journey."

2. "The pioneers and explorers who ventured into the untamed West epitomized the spirit of adventure and ambition. This essay delves into their remarkable stories, highlighting the challenges they faced, the discoveries they made, and the enduring impact they had on the American frontier."

3. "The Westward Expansion was a complex and often tragic chapter in American history, marked by the clash of cultures and the displacement of indigenous peoples. This essay examines the multifaceted aspects of this expansion, from the relentless drive for land to the enduring resilience of Native American communities."

4. "Westward Expansion not only reshaped the geography of the United States but also left an indelible mark on its social fabric. From the struggles of pioneers to the changing roles of women, this essay explores the multifaceted impact of this historic journey on American society and culture."

📝 Westward Expansion Essay Introduction Paragraph Examples

1. "In the early 19th century, a bold vision known as Manifest Destiny ignited the flames of westward expansion across the American continent. This essay is a time machine, taking us back to an era of pioneers, explorers, and frontiersmen who ventured into the unknown with dreams of prosperity, adventure, and discovery. Join us on this journey into the heart of the Wild West."

2. "The Wild West isn't just a Hollywood invention; it's a real chapter in American history, filled with untamed landscapes, daring pioneers, and epic adventures. In this essay, we'll embark on a quest to unravel the mysteries of Westward Expansion, from the rugged trails of the Oregon Trail to the confrontations with indigenous peoples who called the West home."

3. "The tale of Westward Expansion is a tapestry woven with ambition, hardship, and conflict. Beyond the romanticized images of cowboys and gold rushes lies a complex and transformative journey. This essay serves as our compass, guiding us through the diverse landscapes, cultures, and stories that define the American frontier."

🔚 Westward Expansion Essay Conclusion Paragraph Examples

1. "As we conclude this essay on Westward Expansion, we're reminded that the spirit of adventure and the pursuit of dreams have shaped our nation's history. The legacy of those who blazed trails and faced the unknown endures in the very fabric of the United States. Let us honor their courage and explore the lessons of the frontier as we continue our journey through time."

2. "In the annals of American history, the Westward Expansion stands as a testament to human ambition, resilience, and the enduring quest for freedom. The challenges faced and the sacrifices made by pioneers and indigenous peoples alike remind us of the complexities of our nation's past. Let this essay be a tribute to their stories and a reminder of the landscapes they shaped."

3. "Westward Expansion paints a vivid portrait of America's transformation, where untamed wilderness met the relentless ambition of pioneers. As we bid farewell to this essay, may we carry forward the lessons of the Wild West—lessons of perseverance, cultural exchange, and the enduring spirit of exploration. The West, with all its mysteries and challenges, remains an integral part of our nation's identity."

Manifest Destiny and Manifest Destiny

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Impact of Western Expansion

How westward expansion affected the united states, american revolution's negative impact on native american history, the effects of westward expansion on immigrant life in the united states, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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Westward Expansion and The American Dream

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The Oregon Trail in American History

Civil war causes: westward expansion, compromise failure & south’s fear, the oregon trail and its pioneers, the powerful west: colonialism & separation of church and state, westward expansion: its impact on american history and society, major factors for westward expansion, monarchy in ancient greece.

Western Territories of the United States

The Westward expansion was a significant historical movement in the United States during the 19th century. It involved the gradual expansion of American settlers and their territories westward, primarily across the North American continent.

The historical context of the Westward expansion was shaped by several key factors. One significant factor was the idea of manifest destiny, a belief that it was the nation's destiny and duty to expand across the continent. This ideology fueled a sense of national pride and a desire for territorial expansion. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803, in which the United States acquired a vast amount of land from France, set the stage for the Westward expansion. This massive acquisition provided the opportunity for further exploration, settlement, and the extension of American influence. The Westward expansion was also influenced by economic factors. The discovery of valuable resources such as gold, silver, and fertile land in the West attracted settlers seeking new opportunities and wealth. The promise of economic prosperity and the allure of land ownership played a significant role in motivating people to venture westward. Additionally, political factors contributed to the Westward expansion. The desire to maintain a balance of power between free and slave states, as well as the notion of "American exceptionalism," spurred the expansion into new territories and the subsequent admission of new states to the Union.

Louisiana Purchase (1803): The acquisition of a vast territory from France doubled the size of the United States, opening up opportunities for westward expansion and settlement. Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806): President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore and map the newly acquired western lands, paving the way for future migration and understanding of the region. Oregon Trail (1836-1869): The Oregon Trail became a vital route for pioneers seeking a new life in the Oregon Territory. Thousands traveled this arduous path, enduring hardships and dangers along the way. Texas Annexation (1845): Texas, previously an independent republic, was admitted as a state, fueling tensions with Mexico and eventually leading to the Mexican-American War. California Gold Rush (1848-1855): The discovery of gold in California attracted a massive influx of prospectors from around the world, dramatically accelerating westward migration and shaping the development of the region. Homestead Act (1862): The Homestead Act offered free land to settlers who were willing to develop and cultivate it, encouraging westward migration and the establishment of farming communities. Transcontinental Railroad (1869): The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad connected the eastern and western coasts of the United States, facilitating trade, travel, and further settlement in the West.

Thomas Jefferson: As the third President of the United States, Jefferson played a pivotal role in the Westward expansion by spearheading the Louisiana Purchase, which greatly expanded American territory. John O'Sullivan: Coined the term "manifest destiny," O'Sullivan advocated for the belief that it was America's divine mission to expand westward and spread democracy and American values. Jedediah Smith: A fur trapper and explorer, Smith played a crucial role in expanding American knowledge of the West. He explored vast territories, including the Great Basin and the California coast. Brigham Young: After the murder of Joseph Smith, Young led the Mormons on a perilous journey westward and established settlements, including Salt Lake City, in present-day Utah. John Sutter: Sutter's Fort, established by John Sutter in present-day California, became an important stop for settlers heading west during the California Gold Rush. Sacagawea: A Shoshone woman, Sacagawea served as a guide and interpreter during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, contributing to the success of their exploration.

Territorial Expansion: The Westward expansion resulted in the acquisition of vast territories, including the Louisiana Purchase, Oregon Country, and the Mexican Cession. This expansion laid the foundation for the future growth and development of the United States. Economic Transformation: The movement westward brought about significant economic changes. The discovery of valuable resources, such as gold and silver, spurred mining industries and economic booms. The fertile lands of the West also facilitated agricultural expansion, leading to increased food production and economic prosperity. Transportation and Communication: The Westward expansion stimulated the development of transportation and communication networks. The construction of railroads, canals, and roads facilitated trade and travel, connecting distant regions and fostering national unity. Migration and Cultural Exchange: The movement of people westward led to the creation of diverse communities and the blending of cultures. Immigrants from various backgrounds settled in the West, contributing to a rich tapestry of traditions, languages, and customs. Native American Displacement and Conflict: The Westward expansion had devastating consequences for Native American tribes, leading to forced removals, loss of lands, and conflicts. This tragic aspect of the expansion highlights the clash of cultures and the impact of colonialism on indigenous peoples. Shaping of American Identity: The Westward expansion played a vital role in shaping the American identity. It embodied the ideals of manifest destiny, individualism, and rugged frontier spirit. The experiences of pioneers, settlers, and explorers became woven into the fabric of American mythology and the national narrative. Political and Social Issues: The Westward expansion fueled debates and conflicts over issues such as slavery, land rights, and statehood. These tensions ultimately contributed to the outbreak of the American Civil War, highlighting the profound political and social implications of the expansion.

Many Americans viewed the Westward expansion as a symbol of national progress and destiny. They embraced the idea of manifest destiny and believed it was the nation's divine mission to spread democracy, civilization, and American values across the continent. Expansionists saw the acquisition of new territories as an opportunity for economic growth, land ownership, and a chance to escape crowded eastern cities. However, not all Americans supported the Westward expansion. Some believed it violated the rights of Native Americans and led to unnecessary conflicts. Others expressed concerns about the expansion's impact on the balance of power between free and slave states, as it raised questions about the expansion of slavery into new territories. Native American tribes, on the other hand, had varying opinions about the Westward expansion. Some tribes initially formed alliances with American settlers, while others resisted encroachment on their lands. The expansion resulted in the displacement, mistreatment, and loss of Native American lives and cultures, leading to a deep sense of betrayal and grief among indigenous populations. Additionally, many settlers and pioneers who ventured westward were driven by personal motivations, such as seeking economic opportunities, landownership, and a fresh start. Their opinions varied depending on their experiences, the challenges they faced, and their interactions with Native Americans and other settlers.

Literature: "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy: This novel explores the brutal realities of the Westward expansion, focusing on the violent encounters between settlers, Native Americans, and outlaws along the Texas-Mexico border. "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown: This historical account documents the experiences and tragic fates of Native American tribes during the Westward expansion, shedding light on the devastating impact of colonization.

Films and Television: "Dances with Wolves" (1990): Directed by Kevin Costner, this Academy Award-winning film tells the story of a Union Army lieutenant who befriends a Native American tribe while stationed in the Dakota Territory during the Civil War era, highlighting the clash of cultures and the impact of westward movement on Native Americans. "Deadwood" (2004-2006): This critically acclaimed television series depicts the growth of the lawless mining camp of Deadwood, South Dakota, and explores themes of capitalism, greed, and the clash between civilization and the wilderness during the Westward expansion.

1. From 1840 to 1860, an estimated 400,000 settlers journeyed along the Oregon Trail in search of new opportunities and a better life in the West. 2. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 sparked a massive influx of people seeking riches. By 1855, approximately 300,000 gold-seekers, known as "forty-niners," had flocked to California. 3. The Westward expansion led to a significant decline in the buffalo population. In the early 1800s, an estimated 30 million buffalo roamed the Great Plains, but by the late 1880s, hunting and mass slaughter had reduced their numbers to less than 1,000. 4. The Westward expansion resulted in the displacement and forced relocation of Native American tribes. Treaties were often violated, and conflicts such as the Trail of Tears (1838-1839) and the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) caused significant loss of life and cultural upheaval. 5. Land rushes were exciting events where settlers raced to claim available land. Notable examples include the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, when over 50,000 people rushed to stake their claims on the newly opened territory. 6. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared the frontier "closed" in 1890, as much of the available land had been settled. This marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new phase in American history.

The topic of Westward expansion is highly significant and merits exploration in an essay due to its profound impact on American history and society. Understanding the motivations, events, and consequences of this transformative period provides valuable insights into the shaping of the United States as we know it today. Examining the Westward expansion allows us to delve into the complexities of American expansionism, manifest destiny, and the clash of cultures. It sheds light on the experiences of diverse groups, including Native Americans, settlers, and pioneers, as they navigated the challenges and opportunities presented by westward movement. The essay can explore themes such as land acquisition, territorial disputes, the displacement of indigenous peoples, the growth of cities and industries, and the impact on the environment. Moreover, the Westward expansion continues to resonate in contemporary America. Its legacies are still evident in land ownership, regional identities, cultural diversity, and ongoing debates around issues like resource management and the treatment of Native American communities. By examining this topic, we gain a deeper understanding of the nation's history, its complexities, and the enduring effects of westward expansion on the American identity.

1. Billington, R. A., & Ridge, M. (Eds.). (2001). Westward expansion: A history of the American frontier. University of New Mexico Press. 2. Brown, D. (2017). Bury my heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian history of the American West. Picador. 3. Hine, R. V., Faragher, J. M., & John Mack Faragher (2000). The American West: A new interpretive history. Yale University Press. 4. Hurtado, A. L. (2002). The book of the American West. University of Oklahoma Press. 5. Limerick, P. N. (2000). The legacy of conquest: The unbroken past of the American West. W.W. Norton & Company. 6. Milner II, C. R. (2016). The Oxford history of the American West. Oxford University Press. 7. Parrish, W. E. (Ed.). (2008). The Cambridge companion to the literature of the American West. Cambridge University Press. 8. Paxson, F. L. (1994). The last American frontier. Prentice Hall. 9. White, R. (2011). The middle ground: Indians, empires, and republics in the Great Lakes region, 1650-1815. Cambridge University Press. 10. Worster, D. (2003). Rivers of empire: Water, aridity, and the growth of the American West. Oxford University Press.

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Module 10: Westward Expansion (1800-1860)

Putting it together: westward expansion.

The era of expansionism in the United States gained great momentum in the 1840s and saw the finalization of the boundaries of the continental United States. Manifest Destiny justified expansion with a sense of mission and purpose. It portrayed American expansion as inevitable, just, and divinely foreordained. Expansion added Texas and Oregon to the Union and was an underlying cause of war with Mexico, which resulted in the acquisition of vast territories in the Southwest, including California. Although it was a popular movement, it further antagonized the divisions between free and slaveholding states.

As the country grew and incorporated more and more territory, the delicate balance established by the Missouri Compromise became increasingly tenuous. Finally, the era of Manifest Destiny profoundly influenced foreign relations, as some of the great European powers such as Great Britain reevaluated their opinion of U.S. military strength, and Mexico and much of Latin America came to regard the United States with increasing suspicion. When California applied to the Union as a free state, both sides felt compelled to press their interests at the national level. The Compromise of 1850 resolved the question of California’s status, though it hardly lessened the tensions that existed between those who favored and those who opposed slavery.

• US History. Provided by : OpenStax. Located at : https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/11-5-free-soil-or-slave-the-dilemma-of-the-west . License : CC BY: Attribution . License Terms : Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/1-introduction
• Western Expansion Conclusion. Authored by : Catherine Locks, Sarah Mergel, Pamela Roseman, Tamara Spike. Located at : https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=books . Project : History in the Making: A History of the People of the United States of America to 1877. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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• Berlin, I. (2009). The long emancipation: The demise of slavery in the United States. Harvard University Press.
• Foner, E. (2010). The fiery trial: Abraham Lincoln and American slavery. WW Norton & Company.
• Freehling, W. W. (1994). The road to disunion: Secessionists at bay, 1776-1854. Oxford University Press.
• Gienapp, W. E. (1988). The origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856. Oxford University Press.
• McPherson, J. M. (1988). Battle cry of freedom: The Civil War era. Oxford University Press.

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