Preview

Discuss the national dispute over slavery in the 1850’s and how it set the stage for the Civil War.

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
990 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Discuss the national dispute over slavery in the 1850’s and how it set the stage for the Civil War.
HIS 148-71
Essay

Discuss the national dispute over slavery in the 1850’s and how it set the stage for the Civil War.

Many wondered how slavery was still so prominent after the revolutionary war ended. Most believed that it would slowly fade away in our country and fix itself. The southerners had other ideas for the future and expansion of America. While the northern states wanted to rid the country of slavery they couldn’t convince the southern states to throw away all the money they were gaining from having slaves. The Northerners opposed slavery for a multitude of reasons some being “because it corrupted and weakened the American political and economic system. Abolitionists appreciated the true horror of slavery – mostly as a result of the role played by black people in the movement after 1830 – but they remained a tiny minority of the Northerners.”(CH13 pg 503). This helps realize that even the north was fighting their own to keep everyone in line and not tear the country apart. The northerners although they wanted to end the slavery quickly made a new political party that further led the southerners to break away from the union. The Know-nothing party was set forth before this one and was quite powerful while it lasted. Had many followers and helped the Republican Party that is today, to be born. It was anti-slavery, anti-immigrant, and pro-temperance policies. The southerners on the other hand were purely pro-slavery. They were profiting from them in incredible amounts and had no intentions of leaving that lifestyle behind. The issue that really caused problems was the fact that the states were expanding and new states were being created out west. The fight for slavery being allowed or not started out with popular sovereignty. The people were allowed to vote and decide on their own if slavery would be allowed or not. So, this brought disputes over who got what land and how it would be taken care of. I saw one thing which was said by vice

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Civil War Essay

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The main reason the North wanted to maintain the Union was because they had not want other states seceding. Slavery was a very big issue for the North. Abolition and journalist, William Lloyd Garrison, stated in Document 4 that, “Slavery’s spirit is as brutal as unnatural; as it means it is wicked, as relentless as it is monstrous.” Even though, it’s true, the North did not want to abolish slavery from states that were a part of the Union. This was a way the North maintained the Union.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One side wanted to keep it and the other wanted to destroy it. Chapter three delves on both sides, and their opinions on the already touchy subject. The Confederates felt it was their god-given right to have slaves, the superior controlling the weak. The North wanted to abolish slavery because it went against the Constitution. But letters show that some of the Yanks felt it was the only way to defeat the south, so they could really care less. Abraham Lincoln knew though, that the only way to end the war and bring the United States of America back together again, was to end slavery and free the…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery was very prominent in the south, and in order to please southern states, the founding fathers allowed slave trade to continue until 1808 (which wouldn't be in effect until 20 years after the constitution was ratified). Some of the framers themselves owned slaves, however they understood this was not a good thing for the country. They had to appease the south, because if they just banned slavery then the south would have not ratified the constitution. The founding fathers began to see tension between abolitionists and proslavery supporters, thus fearing a division between the two. The framers attempted to create early unity between the two, however it crumbled leading to the civil war.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Northerners opposed slavery, whereas the agriculture dependent Southerners supported it. It was on this issue that the most acerbic debates took place. For the unity and efficiency of the whole country, both sides gave in and made the most famous of the compromises, the Three-Fifth Clause, which won unanimous approval. Not wanting to loose the valuable revenues from the South, the Northerners compromised again in the Constitution by prohibiting Congress from outlawing the slave trade for at least twenty years in order to appeal to the masses. Was this necessarily the right and just decision? No. But it undeniably guaranteed the South as a part of the…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most Northerners didn’t hate slavery enough to do anything about it. Sadly, it was an ugly part of American culture and people were content ignoring it so they could go about their lives. They didn’t agree with slavery but they feared that if the slaves were freed they would move north and take jobs away from white families. White people in the North were expanding westward into the territories where they could farm their own land and make money off crops. They did not want the territories to have the southern slave based labor system because it would only benefit a few wealthy people and it would greatly harm the country’s economy to expand slavery.…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despised the compromise of 1850 Abolitionism grew in the North Northerners formed vigilante committees to protect runaways Ex-slave Fredrick Douglas published The North Star Underground railroad was a nature of safe houses to help slaves escape to freedom Grimke sisters revealed some southerners opposed…

    • 45 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dred Scott Decision Essay

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The North and the South had very different views on slavery which only grew stronger and separated the two regions leading up to the Civil War. As the Union gained more land the big question was whether the new land would be considered a slave state or a free state. The South needed slaves to do hard labor on their land to keep the economy growing. The North did not have a need for slaves. They feared that allowing slavery in the North would increase large plantations in the area which would threaten their own growing industrial economy. An underlying issue with the South was the fear that the federal government would take control over the individual states and their rights, especially concerning slavery.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery was a commonly debated issue during the early 1800’s. The issue of slavery caused individuals to question if slavery was against the Constitution. Slavery slowly was dying out in America, most prominently in the North, but when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, the hope of slavery dying out in the South ended. Slaves were now a very important part of Southern economy, because unlike the industrialized North, the main source of income for the South was cotton farmed by thousands of slaves on plantations.…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The North kept on trying to stop the expansion of slavery, but the South kept on wanting more. They kept on trying to push westward. The saddest part of this is that they went against their own countrymen. They couldn’t even compromise with the people who they were fighting side by side with to break from Britain. They completely denied the Northerners who told them that slavery was completely wrong and isn’t fair.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The nation was completely divided. Everyone had a difference of opinion on where slavery stood. Many tensions existed throughout the North and the South. Some people that were pro slavery believed that slaves were unfit to do any other type of work, therefore they were helping them. It was their opinion that the slaves were treated well unless they were rebellious. The believers in slavery argued it was in the Bible and therefore approved by God.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The south did not present much in its fight to succeed other than the need for greed and power but it came a decision to reconcile it even proposed two options to the slaves living in the south, be a slave or join the…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They depended greatly on the North for their industries and factories, because they had very few. They also opposed federal spending on internal improvements and they wanted no tariffs. Even despite having a somewhat weak economy, the South wanted to gain their independence to become their own country, and to have their own way of life, which included slavery as legal. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, the South thought that they would have no voice in the government, considering that Abraham Lincoln was against slavery. In hopes of being their own country, the South had no intention of fighting a war. However, before the war started, the South was unwilling to compromise. They thought that slavery should be allowed in all of the territories. They disagreed to the Missouri Compromise and to parts of the Compromise of 1850. Many felt that these compromises were unfair and biased. The South felt that their way of life and views on slavery were right and just. They turned to what they thought was their only choice: seceding from the Union. This enrage the North, which was one of the main causes of the Civil War.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1800’s there was much turmoil over the debate of slavery and whether it was inhumane or not. Slavery caused the nation to separate into 2 factions; the north, who believe in abolishing slavery and the south who thought that slavery was a “benign institution” as quoted by Ulrich B. Phillips. There is much debate whether slavery was the prominent cause of the Civil War. Contrary to popular belief, slavery was not the ultimate cause of the Civil War; in fact the economic, cultural, and political differences between the North and South played more prominent roles in the instigation of the Civil War and influenced the beginnings of slavery.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Slavery In South

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The South did not undergo the same industrial revolution that was starting in the North, in fact the Southerners stayed almost completely rural and lagged in modernization very increasingly. Examples of this include indications such as public education at the time and railroad construction. Because of all of this the Southerners felt as if slavery was indeed a necessity and their agricultural economy orbited around slavery. Many Southerners feared that the abolition of slavery would eventually result in an economic collapse. The biggest difference between the South and the North was purely ideological. In the North, slavery was abolished and small groups of abolitionists developed. In the South however, white spokesman, from political to ministers and etc. all rallied behind slavery and treated it as the bedrock of southern…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people, especially those in the south, believed that slavery should continue. Slave owners in the south were all for slavery continuing because it was much cheaper than having to hire laborers to harvest their crops and fields. Many people in the north were supporters of slavery too, because they faced major profits in…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays