American Experience

NARRATOR

In the spring of 1846, the United States went to war with Mexico, hoping to gain vast territories in the Southwest. Abolitionists bitterly opposed the war as an attempt to expand slave territory, but they were swept away by a national tide of patriotic enthusiasm.

JOHN STAUFFER

The Mexican War ultimately increases the size of the United States by virtually 100%. It almost doubles the size. And the big question is, "What are we going to do with all this land acquired from Mexico?" Slave owners want it all to be slave territory. Anti-slavery Northerners all want it to be free territory. The Mexican War unshucked slavery. It just took it out of its shell. All those efforts to contain this issue couldn't work anymore.

NARRATOR

While Southerners saw the expansion of slave territory as a guarantee that the institution would continue to thrive, Northerners viewed those plans as a conspiracy to build a true slave empire.