A political view on slavery

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A POLITICAL VIEW ON SLAVERY

Raluca Cristea

Professor Iulian Cananau

17 January 2010

Before 1840, the tension between the northern and southern are of the United States grew stronger. Still, everything was somehow under control. After the Missouri Compromise, the problem of slavery was basically put aside, not for a long time though. The north and south were clearly different, and their opinions concerning slavery became the main contributing factors for the Civil War.

The government often tried to create diversions or to postpone the issue, but never actually solved it. Some think that the Civil War was unnecessary, and this fact made it more tragic. They also believe that in other countries slavery ended by a simple decision or document and so it could have ended in the United States. However, if the end of slavery in the United States was that easy, it would have probably been ended by that time.

The events which influenced the Civil War's starting had strong impacts on people, and one can say that the tragedy could not have been avoided. At the same time, many believe that the problem of slavery should have been solved before the Civil War and that a war was not necessary at all, in order to acknowledge the serious situation of that time. But what many persons forget is, that is almost impossible to solve a problem when both sides are stubborn and unwilling to make a compromise. slavery america abolition

In 1819, a problem concerning the admission of Missouri state appeared. Everyone thought that Missouri had to enter as a slave state, because most of the people who lived there owned slaves. This idea was not good at all for the north because there were already 11 slave states and 11 free states, which meant that Missouri would break the balance and gain more representation in the south. The government knew that a compromise was the solution, and decided to allow Missouri to enter as a slave state. In return, Maine would enter as a free state. More than that, the territory of the Louisiana Purchase would not allow the admission of any more slave states. This has been known in history as the Missouri Compromise.

The resolution worked for some time, but the problem still was not solved, and so, it caused more dissensions later. The government had to force Missouri to enter free, but they did not, in fear that the country might want to divide. Although the compromise brought future problems, it was done with good intentions and interests to keep the country together as a whole.

After the Missouri Compromise, opinions on slavery got worse because both sides seemed to be more and more stubborn. In the north, began a strong abolitionist movement.

On the other side, the southern states quickly began to defend slavery and insisted on the idea of expansion, because for the south, slavery was necessary for their economy. They had owned slaves for many years, and they did not have the immigrant labor that the north did. Setting free every slave, in south, would bring disadvantages, especially to their economy.

When the United States decided to annex Texas, they knew that there were slave owners in that land. Instead of abolishing slavery, the government came up with the plan of allowing Texas to enter as a slave state only if California entered as a free state. At the moment, California was populated almost only by immigrants due to the gold rush, and so, there was no need for slave labor. This idea was finally accepted and so, the Americans concluded the Compromise of 1850. Once more, the government succeeded in postponing the problem.

The end of slavery was going to be a bigger challenge than America was ready for. After congress voted on the Texas and California issue, they had to make a decision concerning the admissions of states from that moment on. Hereby, they decided that they would use the popular sovereignty. More than this, they allowed the newest states to decide for themselves how they would enter the union. In the end, this idea was a big mistake, and created problems not only within the states but also outside of them. In order to have this accepted, the congressmen from north had to agree to consolidate the Fugitive Slave Act, which stipulated that northerners had to turn in runaway slaves. This decision got the northerners angry, because they felt that it was not their responsibility to do this, especially because many of them were abolitionists and did not encourage slavery. These ideas were only a temporary solution to a problem that was more and more severe.

Tension was increasing in north but also in south, and the situation got worse. The popular sovereignty was not a good alternative when the proposal for the transcontinental railroad appeared. The main issue here was where they were going to build the new railroad. The democratic senator Stephan A. Douglas decided that the railroad should be built on a new territory called Nebraska. The South rejected the decision, since Nebraska was on the surface of the Louisiana Purchase and would probably turn into a free state. Hereby, Senator Douglas decided to divide the new territory into two states called Nebraska and Kansas, and allow people to decide what kind of state it was, pursuant to popular sovereignty. What started as an issue concerning a new railroad, turned into a mad race to see how many northerners or southerners could resettle in the new territories. People were actually prepared to abandon their town simply to have a say in slavery.

In 1855, there had been elections for a territorial legislature, and were only 1,500 legal voters in the area. Despite this number, people from Missouri traveled into Kansas and brought the vote to over 6,000. The state became a slave state, but outraged free-state supporters elected their own delegates and adopted a constitution excluding slavery.

Following the crisis, the northern abolitionist John Brown together with six followers, murdered five pro-slavery settlers. This is known in history as "Bleeding Kansas", and it made it obvious that popular sovereignty caused more rout within one state than in any other states previously. The numerous disagreements between the north and the south seemed to have reached their peak, but the final stroke was the election of 1860.

In the November 1860 election, Lincoln won the presidency due to a majority of electoral votes but only two-fifths from the fragmented popular vote. For southerners, this was a clear and final signal that their position in the union was hopeless. From this moment on, the disunion began, starting with South Carolina. As states started to leave the union, the conflict lead to a long and bloody war between Americans. This situation lead to a historical truth called Civil War.

No matter how historians view it, the boundaries really existed between the north and the south, and each area had their own opinions concerning slavery. The members of the United States Government only wanted to solve the issue, hoping that slavery will eventually end, and they tried to keep the union together as a whole. Unfortunately, their attempts only made things worse, and the conclusion was that, for Americans, the compromise was not a solution or an option.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Hahn, Steven. The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

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