The Whig Party did not specifically oppose slavery, but it was much less vocally pro-slavery than the Democrats.

The Whig Party became a force in American politics from the 1830s to the 1850s. It was set up to oppose Democratic President Andrew Jackson, and within its ranks it encompassed a range of viewpoints.

President Andrew Jackson, the leader of the Democrats, was a slave owner and a racist. He personally owned over 160 slaves, whipped and chained them when they misbehaved, and was actively opposed to anti-slavery laws in territories to the west. His racist cruelty towards Native Americans was epitomized by his Indian Removal Act, which forced almost 50,000 Native Americans to leave their ancestral lands and make a forced journey to a new barren homeland. This forced relocation, during which tens of thousands died, became known as the Trail of Tears.

The Democrats in general, following Jackson's lead, were militantly pro-slavery. In contrast, although Abraham Lincoln won the presidency as a Republican, during his early political career in Illinois, he was first a Whig. Other Whigs, too, were anti-slavery, but not all of them.

It was ultimately ambivalence and division over the issue of slavery that caused the Whig Party to lose its influence and break apart. This division caused the Whigs to suffer a resounding defeat in the presidential election of 1852. Anti-slavery Whigs broke away and joined the Republican Party, which would eventually win the presidency under Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and pass federal laws against slavery.