Slavery Dbq Essay

Misael Caballero

12 December, 2017

Paper #3

From the 1790’s to the 1860’s, slavery was a topic of discussion which sparked controversy between the north and the south. The dispute here between the two is whether slavery should be enforced in the colonies or whether they should abolish it. In the north, it was known as the antislavery division full of abolitionists who believe that slaves should be free. Slaves also had much more freedom in the north where many states were known to be one hundred percent slavery free due to the high surplus of immigrating Europeans. Many slaves began to raise their voices to the unfair cruelty they were facing and this sparked even more controversy. According to document 2, “The Middle Passage,” by Olaudah

Equiano, he states that, “Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful, and heighten my apprehensions, and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites…" In the south, it portrayed a much different approach to things than the north. The south portrayed a pro slave mentality due to the high demand of labor for crops such as cotton and tobacco. In addition, many plantation owners and southern farm owners still firmly held the idea of owning slaves as property. The ultimate dispute between the two was that the southern states, which were agricultural, felt slavery was necessary, while people living in the industrial north felt it should be abolished in every state.
For starters, in the north, slavery was starting to die out as more European immigrants were starting to immigrate to large cities like New York and others where they were almost entirely free of slavery.

As stated in the article, “Differences in the Northern & Southern States in the 1800s” By Kevin Wandrei, “In the North, many blacks were free, and in states such as Massachusetts, New York and Ohio, 100 percent of the black population was free.” The union, also known as the north, was anti-slavery and for the most part, firmly believed it was wrong and cruel. In document 10, article titled, “Declaration of the Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society,” abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison stated that him and other abolitionists will do everything in their power to, “secure to the colored population of the United States, all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men, and as

Americans.”
Cruelty was something that many African American slaves faced day to day and many slaves were starting to speak up. One of them was the famous Frederick Douglass, who in document 17, article titled,“The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” he mocks the fourth of July by stating that “a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”
In the south, there was an obvious pro slave mentality.

According to document 14, “Letters of James Henry Hammond,” South Carolina, 1845 they state that, “You will say that man cannot hold property in man. The answer is that he can, and actually does, hold property in his fellow, all over the world, in a variety of forms, and has always done so.” The idea of slaves being property was one that southerners held with a tight grip. According to the article, “The Expansion of Slavery in the United States” by Nicholas Bunner, “Southerners used every legal tool at their disposal to protect their rights to own people, and force them to work for their masters’ profit.” Since crops such as cotton and tobacco were in high demand this was a massive reason as to why southerners wanted to keep

slavery.
As debates heated between the north and the south, the issue whether to spread slavery to the newly acquired states became a big issue. Northerners believe that by spreading slavery across the country, inevitably joining the south, their political power would be under fire. The south, on the other hand, would still be firm in using all of their legal power to ensure and protect the rights to own people. Despite being a pro slave division, some southerners started to believe that the ownership of slaves was wrong. According to document 8, titled, “Letter to his fiancée Mary” by Charles Colcott Jones, he shows signs of resentment by stating that, “I am moreover undecided whether I ought to continue to hold slaves. As to the principle of slavery, it is wrong. It is unjust, contrary to nature and religion, to hold men enslaved.” This dispute between the north and the south would be one that would carry on until the emancipation proclamation took effect in January of 1863, which ultimately freed 3.1 out of 4 million slaves.