Territorial Acquisitions

From the period of 1791-1819, nine frontier states had joined the original thirteen, which was stimulated by immigrants, acute economic distress, and Indian crushing. Although these new territories gained much economic and territorial advantages, new sectional tensions were involved between the South and the North over control of the West. This fertile and well-watered area contained sufficient population to warrant statehood, yet the South seemed persistently arrogant about inheriting the Western soil. The future of Southern slave system caused southerners profound concern. Missouri was the first state entirely west of the Mississippi River to be carved out of the Louisiana Purchase, and the Missouri emancipation amendment might set a damaging precedent for all the rest of the area. Small groups of antislavery agitators in the North seized this occasion to raise outcries against evils of slavery. They were determined that the plague of human bondage should not spread further into the virgin territories. Despite the outgrowth of the South to become entirely dependent on slavery, pacification of the frontier opened up vast virgin tracts of land. The building of highways improved the land routes to the Ohio Valley, stemming from the early colonial dated idea of "Ohio fever". The West demanded everything generally cheaper, for examples: cheap acreage, transportation, and money. Although westward expansion created more fertile land and a forced sectional unity, many interests were stirred upon problems regarding slavery between abolitionists in the North and the South.