Pros And Cons Of The Northern Abolitionists

Instead, the South relied heavenly on Slaves to do the labor of picking cotton and the Northerners’ exportation of manufactured machinery to them. The climate in the south was perfect for their most valuable export; cotton, so growing them was easy. As the southerners bought bigger plantations for the growth of cotton, the worse slavery had grown. Therefore, the southerners had this social construct that the slaves were their biggest possessions because of the 4th highest ranking they had on income, they also had a mindset that the slaves were like family, and believed Africans needed the help of white men. The grossing on their beliefs justified slavery in the South, although much of abolitionists in the North had a different opinion on the matter. Northerners believed slavery was uncivilized and deprived from the equality the constitution had stated; however, the daily lives of the Southerners treating the slaves like property didn’t change at all.

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

Most southerners believed that they were doing a “favor” for slaves since slaves were uneducated people. They believed that by clothing them, feeding them, and putting a roof over their head they were creating a good for these people. Pro-Slavery South believed if these uncivilized people went off into the world, they wouldn’t survive, so for them to be

Starting with the Atlantic slave trade in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, in which slaves were brutally transported in the middle passage from Africa to America, slavery had an important role in the American economy, but differed in volume by region. However, as the colonies declared their independence in 1776, a gradual anti-slavery movement began in the North as many formed negative opinions about the Southern “Peculiar Institution” of a slavery-based economy. Various issues and ideas from 1776 to 1852 caused this gradual Northern abolitionist movement: political intervention, economic inabilities and threats, social anxieties and intervention, and fundamental moral ideas respectively reflect the thesis.

From the Revolutionary War onwards, the South has been developed as the shining example of what an American should be like. Slavery was a huge attribute of Southern society, though looked down upon by the world, it was practiced and eagerly defended by political logic and religious zeal. One argument is made from a Senator

Growing up north of the Mason-Dixon line, I learned a version of history in which the northern states were standing on principle. The North stood on the righteous side of the line that said no longer would slavery be tolerated. On the other side of the line was the South, who depended on slavery and would revolt sooner than change their ways.

As we’ve learned, most southerners defended slavery, even though they were not part of the “Plantation Aristocracy.” What is imperative to comprehend and process is why they supported slavery. It is also important to discuss the claims made by its supporters and why it was easier to end the slave trade as opposed to ending slavery in general. It is really quite incredible to process the following information because I could personally not relate or even understand how one human can think of another in such a demeaning way. As many can agree, when a society evolves around any establishment, as the South did around slavery, it will convey into a set of arguments to support it and that is exactly what they did.

Slavery was one of the main issues that divided the North and the South. All of the Southern states allowed slavery, while most of the Northern ones didn’t. Both parties strongly believed that they were right and argued with others who didn’t feel the same way. One example of this is a letter written by the American Anti-Slavery Society to its new members: “...our object is, the overthrow of American slavery, the most atrocious and oppressive system of bondage that has ever existed in this country...we expect to correct...our slave--holding fellow-citizens, and convince them… of the immediate abolition of slavery. Slavery is un-American.” (Doc. 2a) This goes to show how abolitionists not only believed that they should get rid of slavery everywhere, but also thought of the South as detached from themselves.

While Slavery was against human nature and while Abolitionists believed in ending the practice of slavery, the South had their own reasons why slavery was needed in America and how basically they supported pro slavery. For instance, some arguments for slavery followed this so-called logic: “Sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. If all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos. And by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for” (ushistory.org). But in a section from, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written by him, Douglass describes some of the brutality that he had witnessed. “The overseer’s name was Plummer. Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash the woman’s heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind himself. Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder” (Douglass 44). This shows the brutality that even female slaves endured and while the Maser may have showed some sense against the cruelty that the slaves faced, it wasn’t enough to say that they too were also cruel. Just putting aside the inhumanity depicted in true

When people think about the civil war they often think of the south supporting slavery and the north being against it. However, that is not completely accurate.

Abolitionism is the act or action of abolishing a system, practice, or institution. The movement that is referred to as the Abolitionist Movement, was a movement that was formed to eliminate slavery completely. The early movement, that took place between 1770 and 1830, focused on eliminating the African Slave Trade. The early abolitionist believed they would be able to eliminate slavery altogether if they could eliminate the slave trade.

Some of the stronger defenses revolved around slavery’s impact on the Southern economy. Slaves were almost essential for keeping massive plantations profitable and were essential for doing manual labor that whites were not willing to do themselves. They also argued against the sudden abolition of slavery by stating how such a sudden change would cause too be a shock on the southern economy. While some of these supporters believed that slavery was a necessary evil, many Southerners actually believed that slavery was morally just and the natural state of the world. They saw themselves as being like parents to slaves, guiding them on the matters of right and wrong and taking care of their needs, and in turned believed that “a merrier being does not exist on the face of the globe than the Negro slave of the United States”.

The northern abolitionists may have wanted to end all slavery, but Lincoln did not, and he was in command of the Union army. He considered it his duty to put down a rebellion, and admitted that any government would put down open rebellion regardless of the reasons that began it. He repeatedly pleads with the southern states to work with him on preserving their right to use slavery, and argues that a union of states who are against the idea of a union is untenable. To him, it is a matter of preserving the Union and its collective strength by not allowing valuable territories to separate themselves of their own accord. Especially when, as he puts it, those territories worries “have no real existence”.

During the 1980's southern blacks from the United States dedicated to migrate to the north with the belief that the north had more opportunities and advantages blacks. Although, Frederick Douglas and Booker T. Washington opposed a migration to the north, millions of blacks migrated northward. The industries for the blacks migrating t o the north was what Douglas and Washington feared, black northern workers being placed in the same situation prior to their movement. Blacks were going to experience the same obstacles and disadvantages as they had in the south just with different situations. Northern blacks were going to experience prejudice, riots and murdering.

A disadvantage that an abolitionist would utilize against the death penalty would be in regards to the misdistribution of this sentence. They believe that the system is corrupted since the large majority of inmates who receive the death penalty are either of, low class/ low economic status or are of African American or Hispanic descent. While it is true that minorities are mostly represented on death row, this is not because of discrimination but rather the fact that these groups are the ones to usually commit crimes that places them on death row. Economic status it is said to also play a part since inmates with high economic status can afford the best lawyers while poor inmates are unable to afford a lawyer or are only able to acquire a public