The Sectional Crisis

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What issue(s) did the sectional crisis between North and South hinge on? Sectional crisis between North and South hinge on multitude of issues pertaining to slavery. The issues show that the federal government had been compromising with slavery to unite the nation. The Three-Fifths Compromise of 1787 perpetuated the tension between North and South. It is crucial to note that the compromise required “slaves” to be added to population count as “three-fifths of all other persons” (Waldstreicher). Population dictates both number of electorate voters and seats available for a state in the House of Representatives. Hence, addition of slaves to the population count allowed slave-states to dominate over the free-states. Slave-states dominated because their interests were represented more than that of free-states. This unequal representation in the federal government perpetuated the tension between the two sections. …show more content…

Expansion raised the question of whether or not to extend slavery to new territories. If slavery was not extended, then the free-states would recover the representation that they lost because of the Three-Fifths Compromise. Extension of slavery, on the other hand, would strengthen the mold of slave-state. The question of extending slavery induced tension between the two sections because both desired to have their interest overrepresented in the federal government. To reduce the tension between slave- and free-state, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was created. The compromise officially divided the nation into two sections. Territories below Missouri was declared to be slave-state, while the ones that lay above was free-state (“The American Yawp”). This division of territory is symbolic of a nation

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