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Raluca Cristea

Professor Iulian Cananau

American Civilization

17 January 2010

A POLITICAL VIEW ON SLAVERY

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.

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.
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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.

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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
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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:

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

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