In the years between 1820 and 1850, the controversy of sectionalism and slavery was very much alive. The South wanted to use slaves as a way to keep their fragile economy stable, but the moral contradictions of owning other people was too much for many in the North. And with the growing popularity of expanding the country westward, a new issue was created regarding how new territories would decide their slavery status. Westward expansion impacted the development of sectionalism from 1820-1850 in the United States politically due to Manifest Destiny, a harmful ideology that drove white Americans into the West in the first place, the Missouri Compromise, an amendment prohibiting the use slaves above the Louisiana Territory line, and the Wilmot Proviso, which further tried to prohibit slavery in the territories acquired from Mexico.…