The Extension of Slavery

Posted by Mary Trotter Kion Feb 23, 2007

Will new territories be Free Soil or Slave States? This is the national argument after the United States, at the conclusion of the Mexican War, gains the areas that include present-day New Mexico, California, and Arizona on February 2, 1848. Adding to the contention that same year, gold is discovered in California and California desires to become a state. In support of the Mexican War, the South had looked toward the new territories acquired being slave states.