The Wilmot Proviso
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=598
General Information
Source:
NBC News
Resource Type:
Creator:
N/A
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
08/08/1846
07/27/2007
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video Documentary
[Long Form
Specials/Datelines, etc.]
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
2007
00:01:19
Description
In 1846, a Democratic Representative from Pennsylvania named David Wilmot insisted that slavery be
banned in any new states acquired from Mexico.
Keywords
Westward Migration, Western Expansion, Manifest Destiny, Slavery, Popular Sovereignty, Civil War,
Sectional Divide, David Wilmot, Mexican-American War, Mexico, Democrats, New Territories,
Statehood
Citation
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 2
MLA
"The Wilmot Proviso." NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 27 July 2007. NBC Learn. Web. 20 March
2015
APA
2007, July 27. The Wilmot Proviso. [Television series episode]. NBC News. Retrieved from
https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=598
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"The Wilmot Proviso" NBC News, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 07/27/2007. Accessed Fri Mar 20
2015 from NBC Learn: https://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/browse/?cuecard=598
Transcript
The Wilmot Proviso
NARRATOR: In the 1840s, as America expanded west, the south wanted slavery to expand with it.
Professor CRAIG WILDER (Dartmouth College): Whether or not the government could actually stop or
keep slavery from expanding into western territories, that question actually becomes one of the heated
questions of the 1840s and begins to really divide the nation by the 1850s.
Professor STEVEN HAHN (University of Pennsylvania): Democrats tended to take the view of what was
known as Popular Sovereignty, which is that the territories ought to be open to slavery, and at the very
least, people in the territories ought to decide for themselves, and that the decision shouldn’t be made until
they apply for statehood.
NARRATOR: But in 1846, Representative David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, proposed
legislation, which came to be known as the Wilmot Proviso, that would ban slavery outright in any new
territory won from Mexico in the Mexican American War.
The legislation triggered a split in the mostly pro-slavery Democratic Party, and
Wilmot was unable to get his Proviso passed.
Professor HAHN: It went through the House, but it did not go through the Senate.
NARRATOR: The failed amendment greatly amplified the North-South split over slavery and pushed the
country further towards Civil War.
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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