Why The Expansion of Slavery Became a Central Political Issue and How it Lead to Civil War

History
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Introduction
Historians agree on the fact that the antebellum period was a major challenge that threatened the unity of the United States of America. The antebellum period is defined as a historical period that began after the 1812 war and proceeded through to the onset of the civil war. In numerical terms, the antebellum period began in 18-15 and ended in 1860. Why did the antebellum period threaten the unity of the United States of America? The antebellum period threatened the unity of the United States of America because of ideological differences between the northerners and southerners. This owes to the reality that Americans in the south owned huge plantations that relied on slave labor for production while Northerners relied on trade and commerce for a living. As a result, the northerners and southerners had different opinions on whether or not slavery should be abolished. This paper discusses how and why did the expansion of slavery become the central political issue that divided the North and South during the antebellum era (1820-1860) and how it lead to the onset of the Civil War.[William, Freehling. 2001. The South vs. the South: how anti-Confederate southerners shaped the course of the Civil War. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. PP.32]
How and Why the Expansion of Slavery Became a Central Political Issue
It is clear that northerners and southerners had opposing opinions on whether or not slavery was justified. Critical to the discussion is the fact that the differences between the two regions boiled down to a central political debate in America. The northerners made slavery illegal in all western territories that lied above 36030' implying southerners could not travel with slaves to the North. Even though the two regions had different opinions about slavery, it was not until 1846 that the debate became a major political concern in America. As evidence, Schweikart and Michael argue that a Pennsylvania Democrat called David Wilmot introduced a bill known as the Wilmot Proviso that would deem slavery illegal in America. The economic situation between the north and south forced the northerners to vote the bill in and forced the southerners to vote against the bill. As a result, the bill divided the congress along regional lines. This was the onset of a heated political debate, which resulted in a suspicion between the northerners and southerners.[Paul, Finkelman. (2011). Slavery, the Constitution, and the Origins of the Civil War. OAH Magazine of History, 25, no. 2. 14-18. PP. 16.] [Larry, Schweikart, and Allen, Michael. 2014. A patriot's history of the united states from Columbus's great discovery to America's age of entitlement. New York: Sentinel.]
According to Schweikart and Michael, southerners argued that the Wilmot Proviso raised complex constitutional issues. For instance, the author argues that southerners believed slaves were property, and the law, protected property. As a result, Southerners believed that voting the Wilmot Proviso in would undermine the constitution. Further, Southerners believed that adding the Wilmot Proviso into the constitution would result in additional slave free states into the union, which would in turn make the Nort...