Shyaka

THE AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY IN NORTHERN & SOUTHERN STATES

Introduction

The debate concerning slavery in the united states is said to have begun much earlier

before the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It was at that turn that the issue of slavery stage up

to the forepart. Nonetheless, some delegates from the northern region opposed it while the

Southern delegates remained devoted to it. Thus, it came out that there was a need to

compromise other aspects to get a constitution. It, therefore, became clear that the decision

regarding the future of slavery and oppression would be delayed. Some snooping plans were

added in the structure indicating that slave voters were counted as three-fifths of a being.

In these undertakings, a good number of delegates hoped that slavery and slave trade would

gradually come to an end while individual states continued abolishing it. However, historical

facts and assumptions were part of the compromises intended to diffuse the matter. The Missouri

Compromise of 1820 was the flagship of this effort1. It worked out for over three decades until it

got promoted to Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 by Senator Stephen Douglas2. The breakdown of

compromise and rising of tension increased after that which eventually led to American Civil

war.

1
Common Wealth of Pennsylvania. "An Act of the Gradual Abolition of Slavery." Encyclopedia
Virginia March 1, 1780.
2
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. Boston, Massachusetts: Anti-

Slavery Office, 1845. Accessed March 14, 2018.

 The American history of slavery can be traced back to the 16th century after the conquer

of the Native Americans by the European countries. Millions of people got enforced into slavery

both in South America and Brazil. They were required to work involuntarily in the vast sugar

plantations as well as in the highly-profitable mines. The working conditions were terrible and

treated with brutality, yet European infections were virulent for their survival that large

population of native Americans were infected and succumbed to death. The Portuguese and

Spanish turned to Africans for slavery. It, therefore, followed that millions of Africans got

captured and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean with the increase in labor demand. The Africans

were then sold in the Americas for slavery through the slave trade. In the beginning, slavery had

no race associations. However, with the growth of Trans-Atlantic slave trade targeting Africans,

slavery in the Western people became linked with race while the Native American population

collapsed. Africans became the most target who got enslaved in large numbers.

In trying to condemn slavery and slave trade against fellow Europeans, those European

Christians found little objection to black Africans enslavement. Slavery became a constitutional

concern but was unresolvable due to the southern states which didn’t accept emancipation. Thus,

the northern with the mind of not destroying the young nation, they decided not to put more

pressure on it. However, slavery turned out to be found uneconomic in the production and labor

provision hence the North believed it was going to disappear with time. Unfortunately, the

invention of the cotton gin by Eli Witney just a few years after the ratification of the constitution

transformed slavery and cotton into a substantial money-spinning agricultural scheme.

Revolutionary war (1776-83)

The enslavement and brutality faced by slaves in the American plantations finally led to

the outbreak of revolutionary war. The colonies cried for liberty against the British interventions.

AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY 2

Some colonists such as Jefferson mainly blamed British for slavery. The Blacks played an

essential role in the Civil War. However, the same blacks are said to have fought on both sides in

the Revolutionary War. Washington was initially dismayed with the idea of deploying the blacks

but altered his cognizance. It gave the British an advantage to attract more blacks to its army, but

it rebounded as the whites became furious with the decision. The war drew the attention of both

blacks and whites which lasted up to 17833. Many slaves gained freedom as they contributed to

military service in the civil war.

The 1787 U.S.A Constitutional Convention

The compromise of the constitution was to leave slavery to be handled at states level. It

was a solution accepted by the southern states. The northern states tried best to weaken slavery

without interfering with the development of the young nation. Thus, authority over voting rights,

slavery and slave trade remained under the jurisdiction of individual states. It, therefore,

followed that the southern states involved with slavery blocked the efforts on the abolition of

slavery through constitutional amendments. After the revolution, the northern congresspersons

progressively abolished slavery and the slave trade. The acts varied from compensation and

timing.

Origin of civil

Lincoln’s presidential election and subsequent winning flashed the southern withdrawal

in fever into blaze but didn’t source the civil war. Both the north and the southern states had

earlier before engaged in a series of inflammatory tension and magniloquence actions widening

3
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. Boston, Massachusetts: Anti-

Slavery Office, 1845. Accessed March 14, 2018.

AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY 3

the gap between them. Violent emotion ran on both sides. Above other several factors were the

issue of slavery that controverted the statehood between the northern and southern states. The

conflict had not only to save the north and south union but also aimed at ending slave activities

in the United States of America. The nations engaged in a ruthless civil war that claimed over

600000 lives.4 However, the war finally came to an end leading to the end of slavery in the

nation and preservation of the Union. The debate over whether the new states would be freed or

enslaved had reached the controversy over the Missouri and Texas statehood between the 1830s

and 1840s5. The 1846-48 American-Mexican War over slavery permitted invasion of Mexican

territories6. The Congress determination to reach a compromise in 1850 dejected the principles of

prevalent sovereignty.

Letting people in new states especially the southern part of Missouri to find the middle

ground in the debate and allowing slavery was difficult. Similarly, the Nebraska-Kansas

territories of 1854 added fuel to the rising tension leading to conflict by the destruction of

Missouri Compromise boundary. It also led to the birth of the Republican Party. The popular

sovereignty evidenced to be of no resolution at all. Consequently, in the mid-1850s, the

antislavery forces fought against each other with the aim of gaining the upper hand. The

abolitionist movement was very vocal and contributed to increasing the northern and southern

tension over slavery. Under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison, Abolition Movement cast

bondage as a national sin, demanding its immediate abolition. For almost three decades, the

4
Common Wealth of Pennsylvania. "An Act of the Gradual Abolition of Slavery." Encyclopedia
Virginia March 1, 1780.
5
Lincoln Mullen, "The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790–1860," interactive map.
6
Lincoln, Abraham. Emancipation Proclamation. W Washington Dc: National Achieves,
1963.
AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY 4
abolitionist had made a significant impact on the American society by exposing the evils

associated with slavery into public awareness.

The formation of various movements such as the liberty Part in 1840, the free-soil party

in 1848, and the Republican party 1854 strongly opposed slavery activities spreading to the West

which brought the concern into the political ground7. “Abraham Lincoln signs Emancipation

Proclamation; racially motivated riots break out in New York; General Ulysses S. Grant leads

Vicksburg Campaign; Battle of Gettysburg”. The Republican Party devoted itself to keeping

slavery off its territories as the Union expanded westwards. Nonetheless, the South was against

this position, and they suspected possibilities of employing the vicious strategies of John Brown

in depriving slave property of the southerners. “The threat by the Republican win in the 1860

election prompted eleven southern member states to leave the Union to form the Confederate

States of America, a new republic dedicated to expanding and maintaining slavery”8. However,

the Union under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln opposed to pulling out of these states and

dedicated itself to Union restoration. Early 1861 and up to 1865, the United States of America

got involved in a brutal Civil War which claimed many lives9. Several factors influenced the

final split between the South and the Northern states. Ending slavery was also part of its cause.

“In the view of many Southern politicians, the centralized Constitution that amalgamated the

states as one nation was an agreement by which individual states had approved to be bound”.

7
Sewall, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729. M. Halsey Thomas, Ed
New York: Farrar, Stratus and Giroux 1973.
8
Sewall, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729. M. Halsey Thomas, Ed
New York: Farrar, Stratus and Giroux 1973.
9
Sewall, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729. M. Halsey Thomas, Ed
New York: Farrar, Stratus and Giroux 1973.
AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY 5
 For over three decades, abolitionists with antislavery movement had a substantial effect

on the entire American society. The southern leaders took the forefront in protecting their

“property” of slaves at all cost. In this, they argued that prohibition of slavery expansion

interfered with the norm and fundamentals of the Americans’ right to property. The most radical

abolitionist staged out in the 1850s including John Brown and others that committed themselves

to the destruction of slavery10. "Although not all those who opposed the westward expansion of

slavery had a strong abolitionist set, the effort to limit slaveholders’ control of their human

property hardened the resolution of southern influential to preserve their states”. The Southerners

benefited from slave labor in cotton production and were unwilling to end the institution of

slavery. Across the United States, people got worried concerning the nation’s argument as it

instigated irreparable cracks in the Union.

The debate on slavery was a pull and push between the Northern and the Southern states

of the Union. Senator John Crittenden who helped in the formation of the Constitutional Union

Party in 1860, tried to diffuse the fiery situation by submitting six constitutional amendments

aimed at restoration of Missouri Compromise boundary by extending it down to the Pacific

Ocean11. The process attempted to protect and ensure southern slavery continued while it got

prohibited in the northern line. In the process of finding an amicable solution that could not

interfere with the Union among the member states concerning slavery, he further proposed for a

constitutional amendment that would limit Congress from abolishing slave activities or

interfering with the inter-federal slave trade. On the other hand, the southerners aimed for legal

transformation that protected slavery forever.

10
John, Wesley. "Thoughts upon Slavery." Archives. 1774.
11
Lincoln Mullen, "The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790–1860," interactive map.

AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY 6

 Thus, the debated-on slavery was critically viewed while taking the unity of the federal

states into concern and the intentions of both parties. However, the Republican led by President

Lincoln opposed Crittenden’s constitutional proposals as they conflicted with the party’s goal of

kicking slavery out of its territories. The South Carolina also marched to war when it withdrew

from the Union. It was after that followed by Texas, Georgia, and Louisiana with the final

division with ultimate lack of unanimity, especially in the South. Lincoln declared maintaining

of the union. Finally, the war came to an end, and the Union preserved under a central

government and slavery abolished.

Conclusion

Thus, the United States faced hard times concerning the debate on slavery and

maintaining the Union of the federal states. Slavery was a challenge to Northerners in their effort

trying to abolish it while retaining the unity with the southerners who benefited from slavery and

slave trade. The debate finally ended up to civil war outbreak in which many soldiers left their

lives. The British government was similarly accused of thriving in slavery. Many blacks suffered

from slave trade and slavery with brutality and unfavorable working conditions. Finally, the war

came to an end, and the Union retained while slavery came to an end.

AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY 7

 Work Cited Page

Common Wealth of Pennsylvania. "An Act of the Gradual Abolition of Slavery." Encyclopedia
Virginia March 1, 1780. https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org. Accessed April 13, 2018.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. Boston, Massachusetts: Anti-

Slavery Office, 1845. Accessed April 14, 2018.

John, Wesley. "Thoughts upon Slavery." Archives. 1774.

https://archive.org/details/thoughtsuponslav00wesl. Accessed April 16, 2018.

Lincoln, Abraham. Emancipation Proclamation. W Washington Dc: National Achieves,

1963.Accessed April 16, 2018.

Lincoln Mullen, "The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790–1860," interactive map.

Accessed April 16, 2018.

Sewall, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729. M. Halsey Thomas, Ed

New York: Farrar, Stratus and Giroux 1973. Accessed April 16, 2018.

AMERICAN DEBATE ON SLAVERY 8