Mexican American War Dbq

The Mexican American War became a turning point in our history that lead to a deadly war between North and South in the United States, and caused change to a great extent. During 1846-1848, before and after the Mexican American War, many ideas began to change in the United States. Although the United States continued to grow financially the treatment of African Americans prolonged despite the attempts of the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850 and the efforts of numerous reformers in the north such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass to preserve the Union.

The Missouri Compromise induced the greatest amount of change in the United States by creating the sectionalism that would divide society during the Civil War. Resulting from the Louisiana purchase, new states began organizing themselves as “slave” or “free”. When Vermont joined the Union as a “free” state, Kentucky became a “slave” state. Congress continued to try and keep the sectional balance between north and south but it was difficult because the North continued to

The Second Great Awakening influenced religious revivals and soon christians began to see slavery as a sin. This influenced Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson to write essays explaining why the US needed to create an American culture of “self-reliance” and independent ideas. These ideas helped Emerson become a critic of slavery later in the 1850’s. Other abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison decided to publish an abolitionist newspaper called the Liberator which advocated immediate abolition in slave states. Former slaves such as Frederick Douglass joined the conversation by speaking about the brutality and degradation from his experience. The social aspects of the US were greatly changed in the north and south form these abolitionists, which ultimately lead to the abolishment of slavery after the Civil