Civil War Dbq Analysis

Before Civil War began, even as the country was being set up with the Articles of Confederation, slavery was an issue that had to be dealt with. When the final vote for the ratification of the Constitution some states would not sign on it if slavery were made illegal. They decided to deal with it in twenty years. After the compromise of 1820 they limited slavery to the south, which would split the country into two for the next forty years. The South would feel that slavery was the best thing for the slave for it gave them something productive to do. The North however as a majority felt slavery as a horrible thing by the cruel ways the slave owners would treat and beat their slaves. There were also those who went and helped free and bring slaves …show more content…
The north had abolitionists who tried to inform the public and even go down and free slaves in the south to the north. They used the system called the Underground Railroad, which was a series of safe houses where a slave could hide until they made it up far enough north to be free. Other abolitionists wrote newspapers and magazines such as Garrison's "The Liberator" and Douglas's "The Northern Star". One publishing that really hit the mark was Harriet Beacher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. As shown in Document F it was a major hit in the north, it told of the cruelties of slavery and how the slave overseers separated black families. In the south this book was often banned, the people hated it saying that it unfairly portrayed the south. Both sides were also trying to get more slave or free states. When a territory gained enough people it would go to congress saying what it wanted to enter as. Each state had a counter part, until California wanted to enter the union as a free state. So with this the Compromise of 1850 came about. California entered as a free state, the fugitive slave law became more strictly enforced and the Kansas territory would go under popular sovereignty when it would become a state. This new compromise would completely null and void the compromise of 1820 saying that slavery could happen above the 36*30' line. But when this happened people started to pour into the Kansas territory. Bloody fights broke out as free and slave supporters fought each other. But even with all of the slave supporters flowing in from Missouri, Kansas still came in as a free state. This time became known as Bleeding Kansas. After Bleeding Kansas one of the major people for the free side went to Pennsylvania. John Brown brought a few followers to the military arms base at Harpers Ferry in hopes he would be able to start an