Anti-Slavery Dbq

Ranging from a necessary evil to a positive good, the perception of slavery proved to be a polarizing issue. Many northern citizens were indifferent to the idea of slavery, while southern plantation owners relied on slavery to support their economies. After the Second Great Awakening, the abolition movement was introduced and opposition to slavery began to receive attention. Due to political ideals, acquisition of new American territories and religious influences, opposition to slavery grew rapidly in the United States from 1776 to 1852. Natural rights of life and liberty fought for during the American Revolution were extended to slaves in the North.

In the Declaration of Independence it claimed that “all men are created equal.” but the people that wrote the constitution had different reasons why slavery was not included. The founding fathers had come up with several reasons why to allow slavery and also reasons why slavery doesn’t really matter.

The free states were equal in political power to the slave states, this made it hard to come to decisive decisions when each state wanted their own way.. If more slave states were added, pro-slavery states would have more power in Congress. The Southern states had more representatives due to the three-fifths of slave law. The issue of slavery continues to build and the Federal government couldn’t make a decision on the matter, fearing that states would secede the Union. No laws on ending or promoting slavery were created, the only laws created were short term fixes for pleasing both views. Compromises were made in the hopes of solving the slavery issue like a Union. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 would have upset the balance of Congress because Missouri wants to enter the Union as a slave state. It is decided that Missouri will enter a slave state, but the rest of the land gained through Manifest Destiny will be divided at the 36’30’ attitude. All the land North will be free while all the area South will be slave states. The Compromise of 1850 was for states applying for statehood, such as California, Utah, and New

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 balanced the ratio of free and slave states when the balance was threatened when the Missouri Territory wanted to become a state. The Compromise resulted in Missouri joining as a slave state and Maine - breaking off of Massachusetts - joining as a free state (Document 2A). As a result, a line of compromise was put in place: anything above the chosen line became free territories - with the exception of Missouri - and anything below the chosen line became slave territories (Document 2A). This Compromise divided the nation physically into the free parts of the Union and the slave parts of the Union (Document 2A). However, this line of compromise also divided the nation politically. According to Robert Kagan, the nation was split between “both national parties, the society of slaveholders [and] the society of free labor” (Document 2B). Those in the South favored candidates and laws that supported slavery while those in the North favored candidates and laws that did not support or restricted slavery. Consequently, the government officials had to be divided regarding whether they support slavery or not. Also, the number of officials proslavery and anti-slavery had to be equal in order to please both the North and the South. In turn, in times of political debate regarding slavery, there was a clear division between the opposing of the debate. The

Many states had outlawed slavery by 1860, so the measurement of the national population is skewed by including Americans in states that had already outlawed slavery. Through a study done by Politifact, it shows the figure is counting children and slaves, not taking into account, family groupings or how many slaves each family owned. A more precise measurement of 1860 slaveholding, stated by experts, would focus on states that did allow slavery, and zero in on families or specific households as a group, as a way of preventing statistical noise created by counting slaves and children separately. It was calculated, from census data, that “4.9 percent of people in the slaveholding states owned slaves, that 19.9 percent of family units in those states owned slaves, and that 24.9 percent of households owned slaves” (Politifact). This data tells a completely different story than the data presented in the post, and shows that not only one percentage can truthfully identify the meaning of the specific number as a whole, there’s always more to know.

Through the Missouri Compromise of 1820 the US. Senate and the House of Representatives’ hoped to ease the conflict between the slaveholding states and the free states by maintaining a balance of power in the House and the Senate. The Missouri Compromise would divide the country at the 36◦ 30’ parallel—a line drawn 36 30’ north—the southern border of Kentucky and Virginia, and the northernmost border of Texas—between the pro-slavery South and the anti-slavery North (Heaton, 2002). This

During the 1840’s the three regions of the United States were mostly divided economically due to slavery. The most obvious area we can see differences was on slavery. For Jeb he states “If that were true, then their hopes of joining the wealthy cotton planters of the South would be ruined. Without slavery, there could be no cotton,” Jeb is from the south and southerners depended on slavery for their wealth, the message that Jeb is trying to get across is that the south if the abolitionist over power the south, the south could lose their slaves which means they lose their wealth. Later on for Thomas, he states “ Well, I certainly don’t call keeping your fellow man in chains progress.” This piece of evidence from Thomas when he refers to the

The issue of slavery in the U.S. was controversial during the 19th century. There was division within the states on the decision of how to deal with the slavery issue - keep it? Or abolish it? On the pro-slavery side, advocates used legal, religious, and economic arguments to defend the institution of slavery. Many of the reasons given by the supporters of the “peculiar institution” were challenging to fight against, which is why slavery was a prolonged issue. Slavery supporters fought for what kept their economy running, what they believed was rightfully their property, and what they believed was good for the slaves - simply because the Bible told them so.

The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free.“In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820.” So they would not create further chaos between free and slave states, Congress agreed to admit Missouri as a slaveholding state, but they would create the state of Maine as a result, which would be admitted as a free state. The Missouri Compromise would also provide the 36’30 Parallel line. Any state that was below the 36’30 line would permit slavery and all states above the 36’30 parallel line would prohibit the institution.“The Act authorized the people of the Missouri territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, and to prohibit slavery in certain territories.” The Missouri Compromise is another way that the U.S political system has attempted to resolve conflicts by an act of

Cotton gin was short for the definition of engine , the engine separated seed from short staple cotton . It began by putting the cotton bolls on the top of the machine second you turn the handle , which is makes the cotton go through the wire teeth which combs out the seeds. Then it has to be pulled out , out of the cotton gin . Cotton king is an expression used by the south politicians . what was very sad was that slaves didn’t have a normal life like I said before There marriages weren't even marriages because the masters would break that marriage up . And what was worse was that still; beating and whippings were still used on the poor slaves. Slaves tried to escape but it made things worse , slaves who tried to escape or who didn’t do the work that was told or did it wrong were punished sadly either sold away from their families or what happened most killed . Slaves worked all day since the sun rise to the sun down . when the moon was full enough light they also worked all night . slaves prefered no full moon.The people who owned the slaves took turns to rape. Cotton fabric was very expensive due to the high production .Cotton production became common in the deep south Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.The dependency on the poor slaves increased. And all of this was to blame the cotton gin . The northern part of the usa bought lots of cotton which helped them build more textile mills . but what sucked for the south was they had

In 1819, the territory of Missouri requested to become a state in America. It was one of the first new states that was bought by the Louisiana Purchase. By 1820, Missouri wanted to become a slave state and this would cause an unbalance between the Slave states and the Free states. Henry Clay offered the Missouri compromise and while Missouri wanted to be a slave state, Maine also desire to become a free state. An imaginary line along the 36o latitude would be created. This would separate the slave states (below the imaginary line) and the free states (above the imaginary line). However, congress limited the Missouri compromise to applied only to the land acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. This led to the Mexican War and America gained new territories in the West. This ruined the Missouri Compromise and led to new conflicts between the North and South in the future.

To start things off, I am going to talk about slavery. Slavery been around since human started peregrination the earth a long time ago, but started in the Americans in the 15 and 16 hundreds. Place of primary use for growing tobacco. Along the east coast and then growing sugar cane along the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean and also down in South America the slave trade, but Lisa Atlantic slaves trade was actually made illegal in 1807, but America still have an inside slave trade after that, and then slavery was actually on the decline. Until a discovery came along in 1793 a Northerner named to Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. This made finding raw cotton in the serviceable Fiber is much easier. The growth of the cotton plantation economy across the South required tremendous amount of a slave labor. Although, importing slaves had been out of the inside slave trade picked up cross the United States. Also, the difference between the northern industrial economy and the Egg agricultural. South began to divide the nation.

Did you know that the invention of the Cotton Gin influenced the Civil War? Eli Whitney invented the Cotton Gin in 1793 and it greatly impacted American history. Cotton was a very valuable product at this time, as we shipped it to European textile mills. The Cotton Gin increased the amount of slaves needed to produce the maximum amount of cotton, since it could be deseeded quickly, but it still needed to be gathered by hand. This caused the demand for slaves to increase indefinitely. The invention of the Cotton Gin escalated tensions between the North and South leading to the Civil War, by making the Southerners rely much more heavily on owning slaves(Clough).

From the 1820s to the 1840s the North and South’s economic resources were very different. The North was mostly manufactured while the South’s was agriculture based. The North was much more industrialized during this time. They were manufacturing wool and textile goods. While the South was farming, its main crop was cotton. They both had many differences eventually leading to the Civil War. African Americans were used as slaves to produce the amount of cotton the world needed. The slaves wanted freedom they thought this was unfair, the slave masters had to control them from breaking free. The big challenge was power, masters and slaves both wanted something that benefited them own selves. Most of the African Americans accepted that they were

While America was fighting Mexico for more territory, it was proposed to prohibit slavery in any new territory acquired from Mexico. It was passed in the House but failed in the Senate. The reason for failure is many Southern States believed all Americans should have equal rights in the new territory to include movement of their “property.” This “property” referred to the slaves possessed by many Southerners. There was another proposal to expand the Missouri Compromise line throughout the new territories and also “popular sovereignty” which allowed new states legislatures to determine if they would be slave states or not. However, the South always worried that the North would receive more non-slave owning states and therefore would allow them to eventually completely abolish slavery