How did slavery become a contentious issue in American politics?
I don't want to hear about the Wilmot proviso, Bleeding Kansas and the rest of the roundup of the Civil War. Rather, I am curious why, out of many issues that divided the nation, this one came up the the most important, defining divisions.
>>1365848
If I had to guess, I would say that the biggest problem is that it made the American ideal inherently contradictory. To quote writer Samuel Johnson: "How is it that we here the loudest cries for liberty from slavers?"
Since the 3/5s Compromise, although the precise things being contested varied
>>1366666
the 3/5s compromise wasn't really about slavery though, it was about wanting more representation in congress.
