Slavery was a basis for agriculture and the economic system in the south from the

earliest years of the colonies, and therefore very important to the citizens, although extremely
morally wrong to many. Northerners and Southerners viewed slavery differently, and that was a
big cause of the breakup of the Union in 1861. Throughout America’s history, there had always
been tension between the Northern and Southern states. These two divisions had constantly
held opposing viewpoints for decades. The Tariff of 1828, or the Tariff of Abominations, was one
major rift between the two. The intent was to protect Northern agriculture from imports, however,
it cut into the costs of living for Southerners, without benefiting them. This incident led to near
succession, but our country narrowly escaped it. This tension had been building for years,
throughout many divisive issues, however, slavery was the last straw for the south. The breakup
of the Union in 1861 was due largely to the slavery issue, however other factors also
contributed. New states being added to the Union, along with the seeming acceptance of
slavery in government, caused a stress between the areas that were ultimately due to slavery.
However, sectional disputes due to other political and economic matters also were a source of
the breakup of the union.
The admission of new states into the Union added stress onto the already fragile issue of
slavery in the country. Prior to the Mexican-American war, northern republicans really wanted to
stop the spread of slavery (Document 1). In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had been
established, and it led to peace over the issue of how slave and free states would be
determined. However, as the Mexican American War began and ended, we accepted new
states into the country, and the issue of which states would be free and which would be slave
states became prevalent yet again (Document 2). After the war, a popular Republican belief was
still that they didn’t want slavery to disappear- they just wanted it to stop spreading. Many
wanted to establish Texas, California, and New Mexico as free states. David Wilmot was a prime
of this, as he created the Wilmot Proviso, a bill with the intent of limiting the spread of slavery.
Because of Wilmot’s support of the Wilmot Proviso in 1846, he would have likely kept his views
in 1847 regarding the same issue (Document 3). More slave states, or more free states, would
cause an imbalance in the federal government, so one side would lose a lot of their pull, and
have less decisions made in their favor.
The acceptance and expansion of slavery moving forward in America contributed to the
problem that led to the split. In the middle of the 19th century, new territories became open to
slavery, whether they were slave states, or open to slavery through popular sovereignty. A lot of
Americans did not want it to spread, and this caused a lot of conflict. Following the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas occurred. People tried to rig the system and cause
fights to get the areas to support their needs— for it either to be a slave state or a free state.
The Dred Scott Decision in 1857 was monumental for the United States. This decision ultimately
ruled that slaves were property, not people, and upset many northerners. At the time this
document was written, slavery was a huge debate, especially regarding its constitutionality.
Roger Taney, Chief Justice at this time, was a democrat, which likely influenced the choice of
the court, as democrats usually wanted to keep slavery. This acceptance of slavery, and its
expansion, along with referring to slaves as property had a role in making the tensions between
north and south greater(document 5).
 Although slavery was a major cause of the breakup of the Union, there were previous
sectional disputes that contributed to it. Between 1850 and 1860, before the breakup of the
Union, there were clearly differences between the two areas. The North became more
innovative, with an increase in railroads among itself, while the South remained relatively the
same-- isolated among itself without innovation(Document 6). In ”Progressive Democracy-
Prospect of a Mash Up”, a comic, it shows the horrible political state that the country had been
in. The Democratic platform was split and going in opposite directions, and therefore splitting
the votes for their candidates. Lincoln used it to his advantage in the election of 1860. The
author’s intention when creating this cartoon was to let the people realize how horrible the
political state was at this time in the country(Document 7). Americans were already split, with
many political factors working into it, slavery was simply one thing that led to it.
While slavery was a hot topic in the mid-1800s, and a large portion of the reason that the
Union split, there had been some previous conflicts that led to it. With the admission of New
Mexico as a state after the war, the North and South debated over whether it would be a slave
state or not, which caused a lot of conflict going through. Many Americans fully supported
slavery and everything about it, which contrasted with the popular Northern belief that slavery
shouldn’t spread, or even that slavery shouldn’t exist at all. These fundamentally conflicting
beliefs regarding ways of life was likely a large cause of the Southern secession. However,
relations between the two areas had never necessarily been friendly. Very little railroads had
been built connecting the two areas, and they had had very different political views for a very
long time. The economic system and agriculture were different, which meant that they had
different needs and wants for their political system. There were a lot of reasons why the civil war
happened, and why the Union split.