How Did Slavery Affect The Louisiana Purchase

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In 1803, Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi river and from Canada to New Orleans doubling the size of the United States. By 1840 40% of Americans went west and lived in the Trans-Appalachian region. Most people had left the east to go west. Meanwhile, the question of whether or not slavery would be allowed in the new western states shadowed every conversation about the frontier. However, the Missouri Compromise did not apply to new territories that were not part of the Louisiana Purchase, and so the issue of slavery continued as the nation expanded. As Thomas Jefferson had predicted, it was the question of slavery in the West–a