North's Thoughts On Slavery example essay topic

John Smith 12/12/02 C Block The South, known as the Confederate States of America, succeeded from the North for many reasons. The reason the South wanted to succeed was because there was multiple conflicts between the two. There were economic, social, and political differences. An example of their different views was the South wanting to become an independent nation. Westward Expansion was a period were people of the 19th Century were bribed with land to move west for future expansion of the new territory the United States had bought. The main reason the South wanted to succeed had to do with the North's thoughts on slavery.

In the end all the conflicts on both sides led to the Civil War. The only way to have avoided the War was to abolish slavery but this could not be done because slavery is what kept the South running. Slaves were a huge investment to Southerners and if taken away, could mean massive losses to everyone. An example of the use of slavery was in effect when the cotton gin was invented and the demand for slavery doubled.

By 1804 seven of the northern states had abolished slavery. During this time there were demands for political equality and economic and social advances. Some of the Northern goals were free public education, better salaries and working conditions for workers, rights for women, and better treatment for criminals. All these views eventually led to an attack on the slavery system in the South. When new territories became available in the West the South wanted to expand and use slavery in the newly acquired territories.

Although the North opposed, and wanted to limit slave states in the Union, many Southerners felt that the government dominated by free states could endanger existing slaveholdings. In 1819 Missouri asked to be admitted to the Union as a slave state even though the North disapproved. Congress soon passed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This Compromise regulated the extension of slavery in the United States. Meanwhile, Maine also applied acceptance to the Union as a free state.

Future states admitted North of 36 degrees 30 minutes North latitude would be free states, and states admitted South of 36 degrees 30 minutes North latitude would be slave states. In 1848 the Union acquired a piece of land from Mexico. This opened new opportunities for the spread of slavery for Southerners. However, it was disliked because it aided the free farmer than the slaveholding plantation owner. Passing the Compromise of 1850 was to solve this problem.

This compromise allowed abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia and admission of California as a free state. Another part of the compromise was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which required the return of runaway slaves to their masters. This compromise said that the territory east of California given to the United States by Mexico was divided into the territories of New Mexico and Utah, and they were opened to settlement by both slaveholders and antislavery settlers. The results reflected great hostility between the slave and free states.

In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. It was introduced by Stephen Douglas, and it stated that the two states vote for themselves on the issue of slavery. A conflict developed in Kansas between pro-slavery settlers from Missouri and antislavery newcomers who began to move into the territory from the northeastern states. This was known as "Bleeding Kansas". The abolitionists played a major role in shaping the views of many Northerners. These people were fully against slavery and its expansion and most of the time took matters into their own hands to get their point across.

The last main conflict that led to succession was during the presidential election of 1860. Nominated was Abraham Lincoln. Now with Lincoln being elected the South really felt that expansion was being threatened, and because expansion was vital to the survival of slavery they also felt their way of life was being threatened. Lincoln said that succession was illegal and said that he intended to maintain federal possessions in the South. Southerners hoped the threat of succession would force acceptance of Southern demands, but it didn't. South Carolina was the first to adopt an ordinance of succession and after that many other states followed.

This achievement outraged the North, which caused the led to the Civil War. The existence of slavery was the central element of the conflict between the North and South. Other problems existed that led to succession but none were as big as the slavery issue. The only way to avoid the war was to abolish slavery totally although the South depended on slaves a great deal.

Really there were no ways of avoiding succession because the North and South had opposite views of slavery.