Slavery : An Important Part For The Historical Development Of The United States

Slavery played a huge role in shaping America as we know it today. 1619 was the beginning of slave trade when African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Slaves were more popular in the southern states than the northern. In 1860, 89 percent of the nation’s African Americans were slaves (Mintz). Tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations are the main resources slaves worked towards (history.com staff). Slaves weren’t even counted as an individual of society, they were only considered three-fifths of a person (history.com staff). According to history.com, most slaves lived on large farms or small plantations. Slave owners wanted slaves to feel helpless and dependent on their owner for survival. Slaves were restricted from learning to read and write as a tactic by slave owners to ensure that the slaves had no other opportunities.

In the early ages of the United States, slavery was a key component in its success in regards to manufacturing for the south. However slavery was a form of horrible labor that blacks had to deal with. They worked long hours in the field, had no freedoms, were not considered citizens, and mistreated by their masters. As time went on slaves began break free from slavery after the civil war and during the reconstruction period where the 13th,14th,and 15th amendments were added to the constitution. During the period of 1775 to 1830, though it was a short time, was a high point for slavery in that change was starting to happen before the civil war.

Once Southerners believed they were losing control and possible ability to spread slavery in the United States, they broke away from the Union. In 1861 elite slaveholders did not think their interests could be met, causing them to launch the confederacy. They did not care about only controlling the African Americans; at this point they were out for power, for blood. They lost their grip on the federal government after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, which caused the power of national state no longer able to be used as a defense to strengthen slavery, but now a weapon to undermine it. They advocated the central importance of slavery and tried to make it seem as if the slavery was the reason for the southern states succession, while

It is easy to see that slavery affected the agriculture in the United Sates, and how the labor of slaves was important to the growing crop of the Unites States, especially the South. The South was notorious for its vigorous production of tobacco, rice, sugar and cotton, as well as other world agriculture as well. Although the population of the south was a mere 30% the size of the north, in 1861 they grew more than one third of the corn, one sixth the wheat, four fifths the peas and beans and over half of the tobacco in the United Sates. That amount of production in the South was phenomenal, which made it simple to overlook the labor that they used. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation revolutionizing the country, the economy of the South remained stunted and the emancipated slaves were unable to fain economic freedom.

The peculiar institution, Slavery, is always a highly debated topic as to what role it played during the civil war. Questions about why the Civil War occurred leads to many narrower questions all with different answers. However the sole reason for the war wasn’t slavery but the questions it brought about such as states rights, economics and political control of slavery, territorial expansionism, and the election of Lincoln. I agree with Howard Zinn that “the clash was over slavery as a moral institution, rather the war was brought on by northern and southern elites who recognize the incompatibility of two distinct economic systems.” The Union and Confederacy had an economic system and ideals too different that it was impossible to avoid a war.

However, with Jefferson’s dislike for the institution he knew that to oppose the issue could tear the nation completely apart. In 1820, during James Monroe’s Presidency the Missouri Compromise was approved. The Missouri Compromise essentially regulated the balance for the admittance of Slave and Free States into the Union. In Thomas Fleming’s A Disease in the Public Mind the author, states that with the Compromise’s passing that Jefferson declared that it signaled the end of the Union of the nation as they had once known it. With this idea in mind, Fleming presents how the Missouri Compromise seemed unsettling for Jefferson, who believed that regulating the state’s choice to have slavery or not would not end the institution but only stir up more loathing for the Southern States. Along with this Fleming, points out how many slave owners made the claim that the slaves they owned were considered property and were entitled to their property to be preserved by the government. It was here that the first changes in the nation’s society and economics take place in the United States. With the further spread of slavery into the west, the abolitionist and anti-slavery movements began to rise changing the minds of many who lived in the North and even some in the South to look at their society as a whole, which formed the question whether the institution of slavery was a moral and just one. This idea of slavery being moral and moral in American society heavily relied on the religious

Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats attempted to cure their complete opposition on the regulation of slavery by using federal power to coerce an end to the feud, yet the movement increased tension between the divided nation. By invoking both legislative and judicial power, politicians used laws which included slave codes and freedom laws as well as court decisions like Dred Scott v Sandford (1875) to convince or force the population into acceptance of stances on slavery. Each party viewed their tactics and ideas to be righteous, and though they intended for positive results, national outrage answered the governmental movement.

The Unites States during the 1850s was a harsh time for African Americans, not only were they treated extremely harsh; but many of them were slaves as well. Slavery was the topic of every discussion during this time period and the United States was literally split on the issue of slavery. A lot of the Southern States wanted to continue slavery because it was a way of life. Many of the southerners depend on slavery to help grow and harvest crops that were on acres and acres of land. Northerns, on the other hand were against slavery. Slavery to them were not only inhumane, but Northerns rarely depended on slaves. Abolitionists were present throughout the United States, they created escape routes and safe houses for slaves who wanted to escape. The Underground Railroad was a prime example of this, not only was this risky for the slaves themselves but it was also risky for the people who helped them along the way. With the Fugitive Slave Act in full affect, Abolitionist were indeed breaking the ‘law’; but for equality for everyone no matter the skin color was a risk many were willing to take and die for.

Slavery has been a notable time in America’s history, but the often forgotten free blacks, who had endured the struggle of being thrown into a herd of another kind are now being questioned. To be free is to have the power to do as one wishes, which was how free blacks lived in the North given the help of a small population. Not every white man’s right was equally given to free blacks, yet all were free to live their lives. A few had significantly, put their say into politics, made a social standing through peer interaction, and gained education by breaking the mighty economic barrier.

1. Throughout the U.S., slaves were seen as necessity to society due to their role in agricultural production in the South. However, from 1776 to 1852, people's views of slavery were shifting due to the 2nd Great Awakening, Missouri Compromise, and Compromise of 1850. Therefore, these 3 events had played the most significant role as to how the opposing views of slavery had increased.

.In the primary sources given there are many ideas of what American society is like at the time. One of the biggest ideas that we see is the lack of rights for many women and slaves and the different of ideas about slavery from the north and south. At the time women were almost consider second-class citizens lacking rights. According to Sara Grimke, the government did not let women know about the laws that govern them. She mentions that if women had an idea of what laws said about them they would be less vulnerable to their husbands when they try to take advantage of them. She says that they have to rights and no power in the government. She also mentions that they were support to follow all their others from their husbands and argue that this

Every day it is becoming more and more evident that our nation is divided. Despite warnings from prominent historical figures like George Washington, we have created a great fissure in our nation that stretches from Maryland to Kansas. Where we should be one nation, united under our Constitution, we are instead the North and the South. Every day, this fissure grows and spreads, and soon, I fear, it will crack our Unites States in half. The driving force behind this rift is a controversial issue: the institution of slavery. It was initially intended by our founding fathers that slavery be slowly phased out, as even in 1775 our budding nation’s leaders had the common sense and moral compass to see that slavery is wrong. Even the proponents

Slavery in America had a tight hold over the southern half. It was primarily located in the southern portion and African American slaves were held on large plantations and out in the fields. Some were even leased into the industrializing factories. Ever since slavery in America started, slaves were considered property. Every black person was a white persons “property”. Now American had a belief, a belief that every man were entitled to God-given rights. The rights could not be stripped from any man. The rights entitled you to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (or property). The north was against slavery and wanted to either stop the spread of it to the new territories of the US or to just abolish slavery altogether. However slavery was tied deeply with the South’s economic status and development. Southern culture was very firm on keeping the institution of slavery and took every opportunity to defy the North’s efforts to make any changes or compromise. The South threatened to leave the union at every step. This was the root of where the Civil war would spring from. Not being able to reach a conclusion on the issue of slavery and the union staying as one. People against slavery and slaves themselves argues that since every man was entitled to their inalienable rights, then why didn’t those rights apply to them? The irony is that the United States of America advocated human liberty ever since the revolution that separated them from England, so they were familiar

In 1619, the first Africans made their way to America, giving birth to the slave industry that would soon drive a wedge between the nation. As the United States progressed into different industries, slavery benefited only one side of the country – the south. The north began outlawing slavery, deeming it as immoral and unconstitutional while the south needed and depended on slavery to maintain their economy. The opposing sides on the slave system lead to arguments between the North and the South as to decide what new territories would allow slavery, then leading on to outlawing slavery all together. Tensions increased with the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 as both northerners and southerners rushed to relocate to Kansas and

The use of African American slaves began in the Mid-17th century. According to the U.S. Census of 1790, the United States had a population of 3.8 million people; from which 700,000 of them were slaves, that is 18 percent of the entire population. The state of Virginia had the largest population of slaves. Virginia alone had 300,000 slaves. In South Carolina, 43 percent of the entire population was slaves ( Zambelli). It all makes sense because in the year of 1790, the average household owned 2-6 slaves. Some families owned a larger farm or had larger plantation fields and they could own up to two-hundred slaves (Walbert). People owned slaves not just for the economic advantages that they produced but also for racial prejudice. “Southern whites were convinced that slavery was necessary … because freed blacks would be savages and a threat to white survival” (Zambelli).