Newton Knight's Arguments Leading To The Civil War

It was clear to people in the late 1800s that the Civil War caused many national problems along with problems within the union. However, the Civil War assuaged many problems for the country. For example, slavery was abolished, the supremacy of the national government had been confirmed, and secession had been proved false. Some people may believe that the main reason why the congress’ reconstruction efforts to ensure equal rights to the freedmen failed was because virtually no one in America thought blacks were equal to whites. Basically it was because people still have racial thoughts; slaves didn’t get to fully acquire the meaning and prerogatives of their rights; in other words they were uneducated.

Slavery has been a widespread practice for decades, before slowly disappearing. In the period from 1776 to 1852 there was both opposition and approval for slavery in the United States. However, underlying forces such as change in religious morals, the rise of abolition groups and the abolition movement, and support in the black community contributed to growing opposition over slavery in this period. Change in religious morals was probably one of the major causes for growing opposition to slavery. People were beginning to use Christian ideals to support the stance that all men were created equal, as stated in the Declaration of Independence that was signed in 1776 when the nation was first founded.

Slavery in the United States was a driving force of the economy from the inception of our nation until the mid nineteenth century. Enslaved peoples in the United States endured trials and tribulations that we today cannot fathom. Enslaved peoples were taken from their homes, separated from their loved ones, boarded onto ships and packed together like pigs headed for slaughter. One would wonder if death was actually more humane than what those people endured. Not everyone was a supporter of slavery in America. John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Abraham Lincoln were known abolitionists who opposed slavery in the United States. “Abolition was a radical, interracial, movement, one which addressed the entrenched problems exploitation and disenfranchisement in a liberal democracy and anticipated debates over race, labor, and empire.” In January of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved peoples in the southern states that had seceded from the Union. There have been abolition movements in the United States dating as far back as the eighteenth century. For abolition to work abolitionists needed the support of congress, be it to the chagrin of southern states where slavery was still a cultural norm, it did not gain traction early on. From abolitionists issuing pamphlets and writing plays and poems to bring awareness and solidify their cause for the abolishment of slavery, abolition had gained traction

The first issue was abolitionist movement wanted to end slavery and that was because colonist in the North didn’t want slaves to be part of the society unlike the colonist in the South. With that going on it started to divide the country really bad, by the 1830s many settlers was saying that slavery was a good thing and a lot of other settlers didn’t believe that. As time went the country grew worse and worse by the da, until eventually segregated by the settlers who want slaves and who didn’t, another reason would be that slaves were counted as three-fifths of a vote for the purpose of population and representation in the House of Representatives. The Constitution also prohibited the importation of slaves that begin in 1808, but have to manage without using the words slave or slavery. The last reason is that with the improvements of the cotton grin and the sewing machine increased the demand of slave labor in the US especially in the South. The

At the end of the Civil War, America faced the difficult task of uniting not only two separated territories of the United States, but also two races long separated by racism and culture. Devastated and embittered by the damage of the war, the South had a long way to go in order to achieve true equality between the former slave owners and former slaves. The majority of the South remained set in racist behavior, finding post-Civil War legal loopholes to diminish African American rights (Tindall & Shi, 2010, pp. 757-758). Southerners continued to marginalize Blacks in their behavior toward ex-slaves and the later African American generation,

The book, “Apostles of Disunion,” by Charles Dew, relates to a major topic that we have been discussing in lecture, which is racial equality. Racial equality was a very rough battle that was being taken on by abolitionists and African Americans in America at the time before and during the civil war. Many southerners did not want slavery to end and the book is mainly about the south trying to succeed from America to become its own nation that could thrive off of slavery. They desperately wanted slavery to continue because they thought it crucial for them to be able to continue to harvest crops and make a living off of the work that slaves were forced to do. Southerners also hated the idea of African Americans being seen as equal to them because

With the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and a heavy push towards Reconstruction, many freedmen found themselves forced to choose between starvation or labor contracts with their previous slave masters in

The time period from 1775 to 1830 was full of changes. The United States was developing into its own country, with its own freedoms. As the government began to settle, the issue of slavery was ever present. Nobody was quite sure of how to handle slavery. While some people fought to have slavery abolished, others completely opposed the idea of no longer having slaves. It was during this time period that many slaves managed to gain their freedom; however slavery as an institution continued to expand. Even though the many states passed laws outlawing the practice of slavery, the slave trade in the states that still allowed slavery grew immensely.

The education system had to be reestablished And for those that had never had any formal education as the slaves They now could get an education and what they called a Freedom School. These were a black these were considered black code laws where the 14th amendment was Used and expanded upon to protect the slaves Are the free slaves In the south. Therefore these changes that the Congress have put in place they felt would create a equal opportunity for those blacks or slaves within the southern states as well as poor white farmers. Jackson was impeached by the Congress To show him as the Congress said who was in control and then charged they were not him. A new president had to be brought in, whom replaced Johnson as president And to end

After the civil war and the period of reconstruction during the 20th century, many economic, social and political conditions changed for African Americans. This new freedom and opportunities given to them were not dramatically a big change. Even though the civil war had ended African Americans still faced discrimination and didn’t get as promised. One social change that came out of the civil war and reconstruction was segregation between the two races it was the process of separating the black people from the white. As shown in document 6, we see the public drinking fountain in North Carolina are kept separate from the white.

After the American Revolution, the plantation systems of the south greatly expanded slavery in the United States. The Southern states relied on this slave labor for workers in their fields. This created tension everywhere, politically, economically, and socially. Many felt it was unjust to own a human being and the treatment of these slaves was horrible. These tensions were so strong that it became a major component to the nation-wide crisis, which resulted in the Civil War. Non-slaving holding Americans used forms of anti-slavery agitation to try to persuade slave-holding people to see their side. After the Civil War ended and the abolishment of slavery was put into law, the problem of race was not over. It provided freedom to millions of enslaved Americans and was a major social shift in the United States.

The end of the civil war should’ve marked a major turning point for the position of African Americans. The north’s victory marked the end of slavery and in addition, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment guaranteed African Americans full civil and political equality. However, the end of the civil war and the beginning of the reconstruction era was seen a ‘false dawn for the slaves in the former confederacy and border states.

The Civil War become the beginning of the end of segregation, the differences of continuing the norm of having slave states or free states over the power of the national government prohibiting slavery in territories that had not yet become states. Following the Civil War, the millions of formerly enslaved African Americans hoped to join the larger society as full and equal citizens. (Smithsonian National Museum of American History, N/A). Throughout history many white Americans have embraced them, however the ignorance, racism and ideas to sustain them have led to the division. The 1900’s embodied the old customs of the North and South, with the additions of new laws which created the segregated society the fated African Americans to status of second-class citizenship. An example of someone who fought to change these ideals was Septima Poinsette Clark, wanting to change the way African Americans had access to the public system by educating illiterate blacks and gaining full citizenship and right to vote.

Due to the huge boom in factories and workers the North experienced an great increase of economical power. Additionally, runaway and freed slaves typically migrated to the North for work which cause upset within the South. Furthermore, new ways of trading led to the increased demand of cotton which required more slaves. When the cotton gin was introduced this meant that more slaves could produce more cotton than before growing the slave population in the South. Finally, after previous wars such as the Mexican-American war was fought large amount of land was gained. Unfortunately, this brought up the concern whether or not slavery would be legal or abolished in those states which caused unrest because they many didn’t want to compete with

Racial citizenship was greatly changed during the era of the civil war, and the post-civil war. Throughout the war, the whole dynamic of the racial hierarchy of the United States and especially the former Confederate states changed drastically. The main idea that changed throughout the time period was the creation of an equal white race that was a superior to all blacks.