Antebellum Slavery: The Great North-South Divide

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The people of a country will not always agree on national policies; such was the case after the American Revolution. As what is known as the antebellum period began, the American Nation was divided into the North and South by many issues but most economic issues arising from western expansion and slavery. While the North had abolished slavery, the South insisted on slavery for the cultivation of their cash crops especially cotton. The south had religious and racial justifications for the institution of slavery and even went so far as to proclaim slavery was for the slave’s own benefit. The North, motivated by the second Great Awakening however, had women and the Abolitionist movement that regarded slavery as evil and an institution that needed to be abolished. The Great North-South Divide had been set in motion.

One of the other issues that led America to a great divide was the debate over who would control the western territory Americans were settling. This particular issue mattered because of the difference in economic policies of the North and South. While the North supported policies that would promote domestic production over importation, the South however supported policies that would encourage trade of cotton with other countries and policies encouraging only domestic production would hinder this. Added to the struggle for power, the North and South disagreed on the controversial issue of slavery.

The antebellum slavery period was characterized by the black freedmen in the North and slaves of the South working under harsh conditions for the few cotton farming elite. While the freedmen did indeed have their freedom, they were equally subject to racism from white people. Cotton production was booming in the south and...

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...ti-slavery propaganda to inspire and founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. Their argument against slavery was that Christianity promoted morality and goodwill to others and therefor God could not support such an institution. “Slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety and best interests of all concerned, require its immediate abandonment” (Tindall, Shi 544). In addition the North argued that the Constitution assured human rights and therefore the institution of slavery which treated people as property was a violation of the Constitution.

Works Cited

Fitzhugh, George. “The Blessings of Slavery" exp. Sociology for the South, or The Failure of free society. A. Morris: Richmond, VA 1857.

Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 544. Print.

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