Southern Expansion

When mentioning southern expansion in the years prior to the American Civil War, what places come to mind? While most people think of the west as the closest and quickest place the southern states could have expanded the institution of slavery, one does not typically consider Cuba as a likely location. The island of Cuba served as a valid choice for many southern expansionists in the name of slavery, not only because its land was well suited and had been exposed to slavery, but also it was believed that Cuban planters would be open to United States intervention. However, it was because of the efforts on the part of the Democrats and the Pierce Administration that made purchasing/taking the territory impossible, and further led to hostilities …show more content…
In the Old Northwest, “the contemporary name for the region north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachian Mountains” an economy based on foodstuffs with a heavy center in the east focused on the consumption and manufacturing of goods. How did this differ from the southern half of the United States? The economy of the southern states lived by the motto where “Cotton was King.” Furthermore, the South was notable for its soil, climate and labor system, and specifically African-American slaves, as a central part of southern society as well as a critical piece in the southern way of life. It is here we start to see differing ways of life between the northern and southern halves of the country. In relation to the years prior to the Civil War, though, both the north and the south feared the other half’s way of life as a threat. It was southern fear that northern states were gaining an advantage in the number of free states, as well as representation in Congress. Running the numbers, it can be ascertained that out of the twenty-seven states in the Union by 1850, fifteen registered as free states while twelve were slave states. Out of the twenty-seven total states, there were 144 representatives of the northern states, with 82 for the southern states. Numerically we can see how the advantage clearly rests with the northern states in …show more content…
Polk, the U.S. President at this time, was in favor of the purchase, but, when Polk tried to purchase the territory of Cuba for $100 million, the Spanish Foreign Minister refused. Polk wrote in his diary that “he [Mr. Saunders, the U.S. Minister to Spain] was authorized to inform him [the Secretary of State for the United States] in conversation that the U.S. could never permit Cuba into to pass into the hands of any European Power, and that whilst the Island remained a possession of Spain the U.S. would in no way interfere with it.” When money would not work in the acquisition of Cuba, American expansionists resorted to fomenting an uprising, similar to how it was done in “Florida, Texas and California.” The first of these major uprisings was Narcisco López who was a “Venezuelan soldier of fortune” who recruited several hundred American adventures for the “first filibustering expedition against Cuba.” Filibustering derives from the Spanish word “Filibustero, which refers to a freebooter or pirate,” not to be confused with the American political term. When U.S. President Zachary Taylor, who opposed further expansion, ordered the U.S. Navy to prevent López from leaving New York, the Venezuelan filibusterer moved his operations to New Orleans where he raised another force. Louis Schlesinger, one of the many soldiers who accompanied López on his following expedition to Cuba, noted how the general, upon reaching the shores of Cuba, knelt on the ground