US History

U.S. History Study Guide

The last serious Southern debate over the institution of slavery took place in the Virginia legislature in 1832, in the aftermath of Nat Turner’s revolt. The discussion squelched any move toward emancipation. In 1836 Southern members of the U.S. House of Representatives pushed through the infamous “Gag Rule," which forbade any discussion on the question or slavery in both houses of government. That rule remained in effect until 1844. Beginning in 1837, regular conventions were heard across the South to discuss ways to escape Northern economic and political domination. As the decade of the 1840’s opened, the two sections were becoming more and more estranged and the channels of compromise were becoming more and more poisoned by the emotional responses to slavery. The development which contributed most to keeping the sore festering was westward expansion.

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