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John MacLean
American History
Professor Villano
Sectional Struggle
Westward expansion during the 1840's and 1850's effected the political situation in the country as
the states were precariously balanced between slave states and non-slave states. With westward
expansion each territorial addition to the union had the possibility of upsetting that balance.
The compromise of 1850 backfired on the southern slave states. It made northerners in general
who may have been neutral on the subject take the side of abolitionists. Especially Bostonians who
became more antagonistic toward the south and increasingly refused to enforce the law that returned
slaves back to their owners in the south.
