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Slavery during the antebellum period
Slavery in the antebellum period
Slavery in the antebellum period
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In the mid 1800’s, the topic of slavery became the reason for many debates and compromises, such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. Arguments on whether slavery should go into the territories, or even be allowed in the country, kept coming. This issue was getting larger and larger, arguably the biggest of then and now. No matter what could have happened, though, a war was more than likely going to arise between the states. In the midst of all this trouble, the South was not open to Northern efforts to save the Union. The South already had plans for the possible and eventual election of Abraham Lincoln. If (and when) he won, it would be their duty to secede, South Carolina’s governor told other southern governors. The South, where Lincoln did not win a single state, believed the President and Congress were now set against their beliefs, especially slavery. They barely gave Lincoln a chance to see what he would do as president. South Carolina …show more content…
left the Union before Lincoln took office and several other states left with Lincoln’s presidential tenure beginning to enter its third month. Northerners tried to stop the secession of the South, but failed. For example, Senator John Crittenden introduced a bill to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific and made an “unamendable” amendment that would permanently guarantee their right to hold slaves in states below the border. This bill, though, received very little support as slavery in the west wasn’t an issue anymore. There was no chance that there could have been a fair compromise to abolish slavery.
It is fairly obvious that, to agree to get rid of slavery, the South would have asked for as many things that could’ve popped up in their minds, and that there wasn’t a possibility that the North would give the South nearly what they wanted. The South left the Union due to the fact they wouldn’t have power in Congress and from the President. The South thought that slavery would get abolished because of this northern-heavy Congress and Republican President. This absolutely shows that the southerners were not close to even thinking that they should let their slaves free. The only way slavery would have been abolished would be from a war. The South would have to lose and surrender themselves, and slavery, to the Union. This happened after a five year bloody war overwhelmed the Confederacy. Due to the fact that there couldn’t have been a fair compromise, war was bound to be the decision maker of what happened kwith
slavery. Overall, the U.S. Civil War was bound to happen over the argument on slavery. There was no chance a fair compromise could have been made, or the South would have listened to the abolitionist north. The rising arguments and debates led to this inevitable war that got rid of slavery and kept the United States together.
The Missouri Compromise and the Nullification Crisis were both very noteworthy events in American history. The significance of the two not only laid in the events themselves, but also the time period in which they occurred and what they foreshadowed. In short, the Missouri Compromise was an act of Congress passed in 1820 between the two faction of United States Congress, that is, the pro-slavery faction and the anti-slavery factions. The compromise primarily involved the regulation of slavery in the western territories of the United States. Although it prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of the 36 30 degree latitude, it carved out an exception for Missouri.
There are two mind paths to choose when considering the statement that the compromises of the 1800s were not really compromises, but sectional sellouts by the North, that continually gave in to the South's wishes. The first is that the compromises really were compromises, and the second is that the compromises were modes of the North selling out. Really, there is only one correct path between these two, and that is that the North sold out during these compromises and gave the South what it wanted for minimal returns. The three main compromises of the 19th century, the compromises of 1820 (Missouri) and 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 each were ways for the south to gain more power so that eventually, it could secede. First, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 established the slavery line that allowed slavery below it and forbid slavery above it.
At the time, the South depended on slavery to support their way of life. In fact, “to protect slavery the Confederate States of America would challenge the peaceful, lawful, orderly means of changing governments in the United States, even by resorting to war.” (635) Lincoln believed that slavery was morally wrong and realized that slavery was bitterly dividing the country. Not only was slavery dividing the nation, but slavery was also endangering the Union, hurting both black and white people and threatening the processes of government. At first, Lincoln’s goal was to save the Union in which “he would free none, some, or all the slaves to save that Union.” (634) However, Lincoln realized that “freeing the slaves and saving the Union were linked as one goal, not two optional goals.” (634) Therefore, Lincoln’s primary goal was to save the Union and in order to save the Union, Lincoln had to free the slaves. However, Paludan states that, “slave states understood this; that is why the seceded and why the Union needed saving.” (634) Lincoln’s presidential victory was the final sign to many Southerners that their position in the Union was
Southern and Northern People had different ideas about the civil war. There were problems within their country and they wanted to fix them. They knew the country was created for the people and was run by the people. They wanted the nation to succeed, but one side wanted it to be free for all people no matter the race, while the southern wanted to keep slaves. With these complete opposites ideas of thinking the southern states decided their only option was to separate from the Union. They split and this left the country confused. Confused about what was in store for the nation they had grown to love. It was no longer clear what they future held for American and it would take a couple of years to get the country moving down the path that leads to the world we live in today.
The Mississippi Secession Convention consisted of delegates that the majority of them were pro-secession and also pro- slavery. The idea of secession came about because Mississippians feared that Abraham Lincoln was going to abolish slavery. The delegates in the convention held similar political and religious views. The fate of Mississippi leaving the Union was in the hands of the delegates that were chosen. The Mississippi Convention delegates were in distraught on their slavery institute being abolished by the upcoming presidential election because they felt they had rights to hold and protect slaves due to their wealth and hierarchy in the position of jobs.
This can be connected to the Mexican American War because they both have create the divide between the two countries. In the Mexican American War, because of America’s belief in Manifest Destiny, the Americans believed that they had the right to conquer their land from sea to sea. This would divide the two countries because Mexico did not want to give up the land, but because of American’s drive to push onward, a war broke out. This is similar to the Civil War because the people were driven apart because the North believed that the slavery should be abolished, but the south thought
The election of Abraham Lincoln, an anti-slavery advocate, in 1860 resulted in the secession of the South from the United States of America. The South seceded from the Union and encouraged others to do the same, as Abraham Lincoln was against popular sovereignty and the Constitution. (Doc 7) Abraham Lincoln condemned the institution of slavery, which led the the secession of the South upon his presidential nomination.
In the years paving the way to the Civil War, both north and south were disagreeable with one another, creating the three “triggering” reasons for the war: the fanaticism on the slavery issue, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the separation of the Democratic Party. North being against the bondage of individuals and the South being for it, there was no real way to evade the clash. For the south slavery was a form of obtaining a living, without subjugation the economy might drop majorly if not disappear. In the North there were significant ethical issues with the issue of subjugation. Amazing measures to keep and dispose of subjugation were taken and there was never a genuine adjusted center for bargain. Despite the fact that there were a lot of seemingly insignificant issues, the fundamental thing that divided these two states was bondage and the flexibilities for it or against. With these significant extremes, for example, John Brown and Uncle Tom's Cabin, the south felt disdain towards the danger the Northerners were holding against their alleged flexibilities. The more hatred the South advanced, the more combative they were to anything the Northerners did. Northerners were irritated and it parted Democrats over the issue of bondage and made another Republican gathering, which included: Whigs, Free Soilers, Know Nothings and previous Democrats and brought about a split of segments and abbreviated the street to common war. Southerners loathed the insubordination of the north and started to address how they could stay with the Union.
During the period of time between 1789 and 1840, there were a lot of major changes occurring on the issue of slavery such as the impact it had towards the economy and the status of slaves in general. There were two types of African Americans slaves during the era, either doing hard cheap labor in a plantation usually owned by a white and being enslaved, or free. Undoubtedly, the enslaved African Americans worked vigorously receiving minimal pay, while on the other hand, the free ones had quite a different lifestyle. The free ones had more freedom, money, land/power, are healthier, younger and some even own plantations. In addition, in 1820 the Missouri compromise took into effect, which made it so states North of the 36°30′ parallel would be free and South would be slave and helped give way to new laws regarding the issue of slavery.
The Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Acts were very advantageous to the South. In both pieces of legislation the south gained things that would aid them in their campaign to expand slavery. The advantages the south included a stronger fugitive slave law, the possibility for slavery to exist in the remaining part of the Mexican Cession, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the eventual plan to build the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The people of the North and South each believed fiercely in their cause, one for a free people the other for life servitude. Neither group, based on the documents presented were willing to budge regarding their beliefs. They North wanted to abolish slavery completely and the South could not understand why they had to give up their way of life because the concept was so ingrained in them as a people. The two completely different ideals could not co-exist peacefully and therefore the eventual climax of this issue, the war, was an inevitable
Tensions between the North and South had grown steadily since the anti slavery movement in 1830. Several compromises between the North and South regarding slavery had been passed such as the Nebraska-Kansas and the Missouri act; but this did little to relieve the strain. The election of President Lincoln in 1861 proved to be the boiling point for the South, and secession followed. This eventually sparked the civil war; which was viewed differently by the North and the South. The Northern goal was to keep the Union intact while the Southern goal was to separate from the Union. Southern leaders gave convincing arguments to justify secession. Exploring documents from South Carolina’s secession ordinance and a speech from the Georgia assembly speech will explain how the Southern leaders justify the secession from the United States.
The South did not want to lose slavery and wanted future territories to have slavery. Compromise is impossible to achieve. Going back to the quote, "The 1850's was a time of attempted compromise when compromise was no longer possible. " During the 1850's compromise was attempted by both the North and South and failed. It failed because both sides wanted different things, and this made compromise impossible.
During the time period between 1820- 1860 slavery was a very debated topic. Should slavery be allowed? Most Northerners wanted slavery to be stopped But most southerners wanted slavery to be kept. The United States was unable to find a compromise on the issue of slavery in 1820 to 1860 because of how the north wanted to abolish slavery while the South wanted slavery they could not find an equal balance between no slavery and slavery.
After thoroughly assessing past readings and additional research on the Civil War between the North and South, it was quite apparent that the war was inevitable. Opposed views on this would have probably argued that slavery was the only reason for the Civil War. Therefore suggesting it could have been avoided if a resolution was reached on the issue of slavery. Although there is accuracy in stating slavery led to the war, it wasn’t the only factor. Along with slavery, political issues with territorial expansion, there were also economic and social differences between North and South. These differences, being more than just one or two, gradually led to a war that was bound to happened one way or another.