5. Westward Expansion and Regional Differences

5.1 Extension of Slavery
Slavery, which had up to now received little public attention, began to assume much greater importance as an national issue. In the early years of the republic, when the Northern states were providing emancipation of slaves, it was thought that the slavery will sometime die out. But the expectations proved false, for during the next generation, the south became united behind the institution of slavery as new economic factors made slavery far more profitable than it had been before 1790.
Chief among these was the rise of a great cotton-growing industry, stimulated by the introduction of new types of cotton and by the invention of the cotton gin, which separated the seeds from cotton. And also the opening of the new states in 1812 greatly extended the area available for cotton cultivation.

Another labor-intensive crop, the sugarcane, also contributed to slavery’s extension in the South. The hot, rich Louisiana soil proved to be ideal for planting sugarcane, by 1830 this state supplied the nation with about half of this sugar supply. Finally, tobacco growers moved westwards, taking slavery with them.
The society was divided into the free North and the South with the slavery. In 1818, 10 states permitted slavery and 11 states prohibited it.
And the following years were like a battle in the Congress according to who is a slave-state and who is not, a lot of nonsense compromises were adopted, leading to many misunderstandments.

5.2 Women´s Rights
Diverse social reforms brought many women to a realization of their own unequal position in the society. From colonial times, unmarried women had enjoyed the same legal rights as men, although custom require that they marry early. With marriage, they lost they identities in the eyes of law. They were not allowed to vote, and their education was limited to reading, writing, music and needlework.
But after a visit of Scottish journalist and lecturer, Frances Wright in America, the awakening started in the 1820s. At the time, women were not welcome to speak in public places, not even shocking the audience as Wright did with her speech on women rights. She was speaking on such burning issues such as birth control and divorce. The society was disgusted.

By 1840s the first American group of women fighting for women rights was born, leade with Elisabeth Cady Stanton. She together with Lucretia Mott organized a first Women´s Convention in the history. It took place in seneca Falls, NY, and the delegates drew up a delegation demanding equality with men before the law, the right to vote, equal opportunities concerned to education and employment.

But the most important deal for women’s right was definitely the Constitutional amendment for women’s right to vote.

5.3 The Seneca Falls
Elisabeth Stanton and Luctetia mott first met in 1840 in London at an anti-slavery conference. These two early feminist were not welcome at this conference. As a protest Stanton took all the women delegates out of the conference hall.
At the 1848 first women convention in the world, Stanton presented Declaration of Sentiments, based on Declaration of Independence, and listing 18 grievances against man’s suppression of a woman. Among them: right to see their children for divorced women, the right to testify against her husband in a court, the right to keep their earnings, etc.

By awakening women to the injustices under which they labored, Seneca Falls became the catalyst for future change. Soon other women’s rights conventions were held, and other women would come to the forefront of the movement for political and social equality.