History of the United States I / Unit 11 USH1 1560 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Free Soil Is Not Abolition
The idea
Wilmot's stated purpose was to prevent American slaveholders bringing what they viewed as their lawful property into the western lands. But his motive was not abolition. He opposed slavery's expansion because of his belief that slavery hurt White workers, and that lands acquired by the government should be used to better the position of White small farmers and labourers.
In practice
A proviso that would have reserved the entire Mexican Cession for free White labour.
Where people slip
This is the most important distinction in the decade and students routinely miss it. Free soil is not abolition. The free-soil position is that the territories should be closed to slavery so that White workers do not have to compete with enslaved labour, and it is compatible with complete indifference to the enslaved. A student who reads the Proviso as an antislavery moral position will misread the Free-Soil Party, the early Republican Party, and Lincoln's own campaign statements.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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