In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. The purchase vastly expanded American territory into the west and gave control of the Mississippi River and New Orleans to the United States. While the Louisiana Purchase greatly benefitted the United States, it also fanned the flames surrounding the issue of slavery in the United States.

Much of the land of the Louisiana Purchase proved to be good farmland and thus American farmers began to settle on the territory. As the territories became more settled, the question arose of whether or not slavery would be allowed in these territories. Southerners hoped to see these new territories admitted as slaver territories, as this would provide more members in the U.S. Congress coming from slave states. This could lead to national legislation designed to expand slavery and ensure its survival. At this time, many northern states had moved to ban slavery. The Abolition Movement was also growing at this time, so more northerners held anti-slavery viewpoints. These northerners hoped that slavery would be banned in these new states, which could ultimately limit and possibly bring an end to slavery in the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase and the settlement of the territory it provided led to a few conflicts and compromises as well. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, for example, established a line at the 36-30 latitude line which would determine the slavery status of any new states admitted to the Union. Any future states north of the line would be free states, while any states south of the line would be slave slaves. This was eventually overruled with the Compromise of 1850, which attempted to settle the issue of the expansion of slavery following the addition of new territories gained in the Mexican-American War.

Kansas, which was also territory added through the Louisiana Purchase, is often cited as being the location of the first violence in the Civil War conflict. The territory of Kansas, which would have been closed to slavery under the Missouri Compromise, was to have its slavery status determined through popular sovereignty. In this case those living in Kansas would determine the status. This led to the pouring in of both pro-slaver and anti-slavery factions, and eventual conflict between the groups.

As you can see, the Louisiana Purchase and the expansion of U.S. territory was closely tied to the issue of slavery in the United States, and eventually the U.S. Civil War. As the country expanded, the debate over the legality of slavery intensified and tensions rose. While a series of compromises cooled tensions at times, they ultimately failed to prevent a conflict that became inevitable.