How did the Free Soil movement contribute to the Civil War?

The Free Soil movement helped to contribute to the Civil War because it helped to create tension between the North and South.  This tension, over the issue of the expansion of slavery, helped drive the two sections apart.

The Free Soil movement was based on the idea that the lands to the west of the existing states, and particularly lands taken from Mexico during the Mexican American War, should not have slavery.  The Free Soil...

The Free Soil movement helped to contribute to the Civil War because it helped to create tension between the North and South.  This tension, over the issue of the expansion of slavery, helped drive the two sections apart.

The Free Soil movement was based on the idea that the lands to the west of the existing states, and particularly lands taken from Mexico during the Mexican American War, should not have slavery.  The Free Soil adherents felt that a system in which free white people worked small farms was morally superior to one in which enslaved blacks worked on large plantations.  Therefore, they resisted the expansion of slavery into the new territories. 

This stand by the Free Soil movement angered the South. Southerners felt that slavery should be allowed to expand.  They feared that the influence of slave states would be destroyed if too many new free states joined the Union.  Therefore, they were upset by the growing power of the Free Soil movement. 

The Free Soil movement also ended up contributing to the creation of the Republican Party.  This party’s power also worried the South because the party generally favored the Free Soil ideology.  This was an indirect way in which the Free Soil movement made the South unhappy.

By making the South unhappy with its antislavery message, the Free Soil movement helped drive a wedge between the North and South.  The tension created helped bring about the Civil War.