Slavery Dbq American Pagent 13th Adition

Before Civil War began, even as the country was being set up with the Articles of Confederation, slavery was an issue that had to be dealt with. When the final vote for the ratification of the Constitution some states would not sign on it if slavery were made illegal. They decided to deal with it in twenty years. After the compromise of 1820 they limited slavery to the south, which would split the country into two for the next forty years. The South would feel that slavery was the best thing for the slave for it gave them something productive to do. The North however as a majority felt slavery as a horrible thing by the cruel ways the slave owners would treat and beat their slaves. There were also those who went and helped free and bring slaves up to the North and also into Canada. With these separate opinions creating arguments within the government it is as President Lincoln said, "A house divided cannot hope to stand, but will utterly fall apart."

In the south there were mostly small farms and large plantations. Because the south didn't try to gain factories in its cities it remained to just get by and not truly move forward with the rest of the country. Even though the south was pro-slavery only about ten percent owned slaves and even less had huge plantations with multiple slaves. Document C shows that the southerners that did own slaves had them take care of all aspects of the plantation life, including the young white babies. But from the north they received protests on whether slavery was right and should be allowed. They argued that the slaves were better off than the factory workers in the north. Document A has a governor showing this point to the state legislature. But even with all of the arguing the north still fought to end slavery, some even helped slaves escape. Document B has one man talking of how if the abolitionists succeed then the south will fall. It wasn't just that they also felt the north was taking away there liberties, they saw the Wilmot Proviso as a smack to the face.

In the north was a completely different feeling towards slavery. Most thought of it as a cruel and inhumane way to treat a living human. While there were some like the Irish who just wanted to find a job to make it in the country that gave them a second chance and saw the blacks as an obstacle to getting that job. In the north there were many factories which spread across the land so finding a job wasn't too difficult if one was patient. These factories brought the north out of the age of growing goods to an age of manufacturing them. Because of this simple difference between the North and the South the two sides drifted apart from each other. As shown in Document E this drifting led to people seeing what damage it was causing and what would come out of it. The north saw that slavery was a cruel thing even though the south created publishings in an attempt to make people have a friendlier attitude towards the idea of slavery. Document D Abraham Lincoln shows his wisdom pertaining how that the south was the only Christian place where slavery still existed.

Because of the bitter disagreement between the north and the south both sides to it upon themselves to makes sure slavery was continued or discontinued. The north had abolitionists who tried to inform the public and even go down and free slaves in the south to the north. They used the system called the Underground Railroad, which was a series of safe houses where a slave could hide until they made it up far enough north to be free. Other abolitionists wrote newspapers

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