Slavery and Factors that Led to the Occurrence of Civil War

Assignment 2.1
Liberty Challenged in Nineteenth Century America
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Assignment 2.1
Liberty Challenged in Nineteenth Century America
Introduction
Before the passing of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tension was rising between sides that supported slavery and those that wanted abolition. Tension rose across the U.S. and more particularly within Congress. Missouri’s intention to enter the Union in 1819 as a state that supports slavery made the tension to reach extreme levels (History.com Editors, 2019a). Such a move almost undermined the balance that existed between the proslavery and anti-slavery states. To maintain peace and avoid conflict, Congress developed a conciliation that involved admitting Missouri into the Union as a slave state, while Maine joined as a free state. Second, a policy was passed creating a boundary that separated the Louisiana Territory. Slave region and free area were separated by the boundary, and the policy was upheld until it was abolished by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This paper examines various aspects of slavery and other factors that led to the occurrence of the Civil War.
I.   The Result of the 3/5 Compromise
A.  Treatment of Slaves
The 3/5ths Compromise specified the approach of counting slaves. The aim of the compromise was to consider slaves as part of the population, including how to tax them and represent them the legislature (Philbrick, 2018). The process involved counting 3 out of 5 slaves, and this was agreed by the representatives of the free and slave states. The main objective was to establish the total population of a state for taxation and legislative purposes.
B. The status of Southern States during the Slave Period
The states in the south considered slaves as property during the slavery period. Although the states in the south wanted to be regarded as part of the population for legislative representation, they did not want the federal government to tax them. The 1787 Constitutional Convention dictated the number of individuals who will be in the legislature and those who will participate in electoral voting depending on the amount of the population (Philbrick, 2018). The intention of the states in the south was to count all slaves, but this would have led to a significant increase in Congress representatives.
II. Missouri Compromise of 1820
A. Missouri Joins the Union
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had various outcomes. First, Missouri joined the Union as a slave state. However, it was agreed that slavery would be barred from the northern section of Louisiana territory. James Tallmadge passed a policy to eradicate slavery in the state of Missouri. However, the bill passed by the New York Representative failed to pass (History.com Editors, 2019a). Nevertheless, the amendment passed the second time, and joined the Union as a slave state. At the same time, Maine joined the Union as a free state.B. Reduce Political Rivalry
The Missouri Compromise minimized cases of political and partisan rivalries between the states in the north ...