Why did people care about expanding slavery?If someone owned slaves, why would they care if people on the other end of the country are allowed to own slaves or not? It seemed to be a deeply touchy topic because people were willing to kill and riot to make sure states other than their own have slavery. Like in bleeding kansas and caning of sumnerWhat is the psychology behind why people would be willing to risk life to force other people to own slaves?
>>18771431Slavery was literally the source of their entire fortune, status, and livelihood. It wasn't about expanding slavery so much as it was about seizing control of the government to protect their assets. They weren't really thinking that far ahead about it.
>>18771431Think of it as... political terraforming. They wanted to embed their preferred social/economic structure into the workings of the country so deeply that it could never be removed.Which didn't work so well, in the end.
>>18771431People wanted to get cheap land to set up smaller farms in newly incorporated territories. This was mor difficult when slavery was expanded tp those terrories, because plantation owners would arrive, and buy up massive tracts of land to create plantations, driving up land prices and pushing out small landowners.The system was not good for people outside that planter class. The pre-CW South also had a large rural white underclass who did not own slaves, and were just above the slaves themselves in terms of life standards because of that.
>>18771431Because they knew if their neighbors weren't also economically dependant on slavery then said neighbors wouldn't allow them to do it.
