Even more consequential were the westward advance of slavery and the related development of sectionalism. Jefferson’s letter to John Holmes called the Missouri Compromise a terrifying development. In the context of his times, Jefferson saw the compromise over the westward expansion of slavery as dividing the nation and ultimately leading to a devastating Civil War. The Missouri Compromise guaranteed the rise of the cotton kingdom because it virtually guaranteed that slavery would not be ended through federal legislation. As slavery in the South expanded westward, cotton soared in economic significance—a fact that motivated Henry Clay to promote the Transportation Revolution via his American System. This not only dramatically affected the lives of southern African American slaves like Harriet Jacobs, it prompted textile industrialization in Northern cities like Lowell, Massachusetts. Thanks to Clay’s transportation network, North and South became economically wedded during the first half of the 1800s, thus diminishing the chances that slavery would be abolished without a bloody Civil
Even more consequential were the westward advance of slavery and the related development of sectionalism. Jefferson’s letter to John Holmes called the Missouri Compromise a terrifying development. In the context of his times, Jefferson saw the compromise over the westward expansion of slavery as dividing the nation and ultimately leading to a devastating Civil War. The Missouri Compromise guaranteed the rise of the cotton kingdom because it virtually guaranteed that slavery would not be ended through federal legislation. As slavery in the South expanded westward, cotton soared in economic significance—a fact that motivated Henry Clay to promote the Transportation Revolution via his American System. This not only dramatically affected the lives of southern African American slaves like Harriet Jacobs, it prompted textile industrialization in Northern cities like Lowell, Massachusetts. Thanks to Clay’s transportation network, North and South became economically wedded during the first half of the 1800s, thus diminishing the chances that slavery would be abolished without a bloody Civil