USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -By the 1850s the United States had become a nation polarized by specific regional identities. The South held a pro-slavery identity that supported the expansion of slavery into western territories, while the North largely held abolitionist sentiments and opposed the institution’s westward expansion.

Detailed explanation-2: -In the 1850s, the conflict over slavery brought the United States to the brink of destruction. In the course of that decade, the debate over slavery raged in the nation’s political institutions and its public places. Congress enacted new policies related to slavery. The courts ruled on cases related to slavery.

Detailed explanation-3: -The westward expansion carried slavery down into the Southwest, into Mississippi, Alabama, crossing the Mississippi River into Louisiana. Finally, by the 1840’s, it was pouring into Texas. So the expansion of slavery, which became the major political question of the 1850’s, was not just a political issue.

Detailed explanation-4: -Slavery was abolished by law in the states north of Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary generation and as a direct consequence of the Revolutionary appeal to universal natural rights. Meanwhile thousands of African Americans served in the armed forces that won American independence.