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