1. Expansion of Slavery Created 11.30.2011

2. As the country expands west of the Mississippi River, the pivotal subject of slavery fractures the country. Anti-slavery factions want to limit slavery within the borders of already established states while slave states disagree. The government struggled to agree on the issue. The United States, 1820

3. The Missouri Compromise In an effort to settle the issue, an agreement was reached in 1820 known as the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited the expansion of slavery in states north of the Arkansas Territory, excluding Missouri.

4. The Missouri Compromise This agreement helped to subdue tensions between pro and anti-slavery factions for almost 30 years and more states entered the Union.

5. Compromise of 1850 As part of our victory over Mexico in the Mexican War, new territory was acquired. California’s application to join the Union as a free state upset the balance between free and slave states. The Compromise of 1850 allowed California to enter as a free state with the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required citizens to assist in the recovery of escaped slaves, denied slaves a jury trial and increased the amount of federal officials to enforce the law.

6. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 In 1854, the issue sparks tension again when Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas attempted to divide the land west of Missouri into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska.

7. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 In the act, residents of the territory would vote, or use popular sovereignty, to decide whether to allow slavery when applying for statehood.

8. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 Remember that in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery should have been prohibited in both territories due to their location. The act passed both houses of Congress and supporters on both sides worked to see that territory voters would select their side in the question of slavery. Violence erupted, furthering the divide between Northern and Southern states. Opponents of the act formed the Republican Party.

9. A Fractured Country in 1861 The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a pre-cursor to the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, fracturing between slave and non-slave states.