Sectional Tension Dbq Essay

This production led to an economic strength that made these states even more determined to defend the right to practice slavery. Despite the freedoms demanded in the Declaration of Independence and the freedoms reserved in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, such as Amendment X (Document 1), slavery was both tolerated and classified in the Constitution. The South was also able to withstand the growing number of revolts, rebellions, and northern political opposition that was rising. Proclamations such as the Fugitive Slaves Law were established to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another state or territory, and the Underground Railroad became a serious threat to Southern plantation owners who needed more slaves to maintain their economic power. The Nat Turner revolt and the writings and speeches of the former slave Frederick Douglass were contributors to the growing conflict, but the South defended their claim to economic security through the practice of slavery until it became legally impossible to do so after the Civil War.

As a result of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted as a free state, the territory disputed between Texas and New Mexico was surrendered to New Mexico, the slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, the Mexican Cession was open to popular sovereignty, and a stronger Fugitive Slave Law was enacted. In a speech to the Senate on March 7, 1850, Senator Daniel Webster stated his opinion that the North is wrong for not obeying the Fugitive Slave Law and that succession is amiss [Document D].The tone of Webster’s speech is objective as he attempts to see both sides- the North and the South. Webster is unbiased because as a Northern man, he agrees with the South. The peace was only temporary. The Fugitive Slave Law upset Northerners and the Underground Railroad became more active, peaking between 1850 and 1860. Massachusetts went so far as to making it a penal offense for a state official to enforce the act. The act also brought the issue of slavery into the limelight before the entire nation. In fact, by 1858, there was no avoiding the subject of slavery. During the Lincoln-Douglass Debates in a speech at Alton, Illinois on October 15, 1858, Abraham Lincoln stated that slavery was no longer just a political issue [Document G]. Slavery was splitting the nation and during the Second Great Awakening, even churches split over the issue. Lincoln’s speech is

The slavery supporters turned to the courts, who had ruled that all blacks, not just slaves, had no legal rights as people in the courts. They were property, and the Constitution protected the slave holder’s rights to their property. They also had the audacity to argue that by comparison with the poor people of Europe and of the workers in the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for. They said that their owners would protect and assist them when they were sick and old, as opposed to those that once they could no longer work, were left to fend for

America’s “original intentions” (88) were open for interpretation. Thomas Jefferson’s ideology concerning slavery was just as inspiring as his Revolutionary ideology against tyranny. In, Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson wrote that “all slaves born after 1800 would eventually become free” (90) .He believed that slavery should not expand into the Western territories. In the Norwest Ordinance he wrote “there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory”. Jefferson’s revolutionary ideology was inspiring but not effective in solving the problems associated with slavery. It was Madison’s cautious approach, or his inaction that prevailed. He appealed to the Northerners by acknowledging that slavery was immoral, but rejected proposing a federal law and believed that slavery should be dealt with at the state level, which appealed to the Southerners. Madison used political rhetoric to avoid the threats of secession of Southern states and kept the issue of slavery out of federal control. The house debate of March 23 shifted antislavery votes in Madison’s favor prohibiting Congress from prohibiting slavery. So that Congress had no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves. So the founders succeeded in taking slavery off the table for political debate. The “silence” may have helped to keep things in balance while the North and South were becoming more divided on the issue and party politics were starting to form. The course of history may have changed if the founding fathers did not avoid the issue of slavery, or if Benjamin Franklin could have continued to make history, but history started making

Sectional issues have been dealt within American society since the colonial era, where various groups would try to out-resource one another in the hopes of not only survival but in hopes of profit. However, in the sectional issues of 1844-1860, the conflicts presented continue to exist to modern times while simultaneously changing the overall perspective of what it means to be an American. The freedom of slaves was still in question by the end of the era of turmoil, even though that was the key issue disputed. Issues over a balance of slaveholding states and abolition states was also a continuous struggle. Both of these issues had endured far too much compromise-there needed to be a

Before the South seceded from the union, from 1850-1861, the issue of slavery in the new territories and in the Union was debated between the North and the South, they had turned to the Constitution for answers, but because it was written to be vague that it did not provide much help other than fueling the debate further. Slavery wasn’t directly mentioned in the constitution, which made it very difficult to determine the Constitutions stand on slavery. In the territories that the Union that acquired, whether slavery would exist or not was another issue of debate, since the expansion of slavery was once again not covered in the Constitution either. In some territories like Kansas popular sovereignty was used to determine if it would be

Force could have saved our geographical union, but not our republic. The primary problem President Lincoln dealt with was two different interpretations of the constitution. Abolitionists aligned with Frederick Douglass’ argument that the language of the Constitution is, “’We the people;’ not we the white people.” Alternatively, many southerners sympathized with Stephen Douglas’ political philosophy motivated by democratic equality. Douglas believed, “It is no answer to this argument that slavery is an evil, and hence should not be tolerated. You must allow the people to decide for themselves whether it is a good or an evil.” He believed “that each State must decide for itself the nature and extent of these rights.” Furthermore, many southerners adamantly agreed with John Calhoun’s belief that “the states retained…the exclusive and sole right over their own domestic institutions.” In sum, Lincoln and Douglass believed that slavery was not a constitutional right, whereas Calhoun believed it was a Constitutional right, and Douglas believed it was up to the people to decide. This division could have permanently fractured our country, but

In 1787, our founding fathers sat down to write, what came to be the longest surviving written charter of government, the constitution. Some might argue the constitution was flawless; however it did leave the issue of slavery to be unattended and unresolved until 1820. As tensions rose between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery states, compromises such as the, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act only temporarily settled debates that would eventually send the United States tumbling into Civil War.

Yet the Constitution was viewed in the South’s eyes as a free compact that united the sovereignty in states. Since the one source of economic value was at stake to the South, they no longer wished to support the Union for taking away their style of life. Lincoln however argued that the Constitution can’t be broken if chosen to, he explained that in the Fourth Amendment, states are assigned roles and rights under the Federal Government. Yet these rights were thought to be broken in the South since the issue of Slavery was more of a moral and ethical issue that was disputed against. This disassociation between both sides eventually led to violence, Congress made a few attempts to appeal to the South not leaving the Union by passing acts such as The Compromise of 1850, The Crittenden Compromise that appealed to the South by allowing some rights to allow slavery in the South. This was done to the South to keep them happy, but it inevitably led to more violence with the South and the South finally started their own Revolution against the North when they made the final decision to secede from the

Slavery was another controversial issue in the drafting of the constitution. It was not about its abolition, but rather division on to which state the slaves would be counted to in working out a state’s population as well as the amount of property tax to be implemented over the owners3. The government decided to it would not interfere with the slave trade for no less than 20 years, but this move received opposition from the southern.

The 1820s was a time when antislavery movements truly developed and when Garrison became the most noticeable and despised leader of the movement against slavery. William Lloyd Garrison was a timid, passionate, and studious young man who came from a faulty marriage and was raised by his mother in “a racist world in which the rights of property, including property in slaves, were often more important than human rights” (Berlin, 220). At the beginning Garrison was a gradualist who believed in the deportation of freed slaves. Encouraged by the belief that everyone was created equally and in God’s image, he reevaluated his position and called for a prompt and immediate termination of slavery. As a consequence, in 1831 he established a newspaper

Legally speaking, the constitution contained arguments for slavery and protected the rights of the people to own slaves. The three-fifth clause stated that slaves were counted as ⅗ of a person . This compromise also exposes the fact that slaves were thought of as property of their masters. Because the slaves are the property of

It is known that in the United States the North and the South had different intentions in regarding to slavery. This controversial debate only got worse over the years due to the Fugitive Slave Law. When the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law, requiring free states to return runaway slaves to their masters, was passed it only angered the northern states more while “slaveholders argued that the law simply reinforced their constitutional right to reclaim their human property”(Gates 97). Although slaveholders were happy about this law it was not satisfying enough for them, most likely cause they felt that their runaway slaves were not being returned. The Fugitive Slave Law was strengthened in 1850 stating that if runaway slaves were not returned officials

Slavery is a legal system in which humans can be treated as property. They can be owned, bought, sold, and do not have a say in the fate that is chosen for them. The Southerners claimed to have many reasons for seceding, but their main dilemma was slavery. When the Northerners began to contradict slavery, the South became petrified. They didn’t consider it fair for the government to control how they lived. Slave labor played an important role in the Northerners lives, and when they felt as though they were being attacked, they sensed the need to withdraw from the United States.

"The American constitution perceived slavery as a nearby constitution inside the lawful privileges of the individual states. Anyway, in the North slavery was not versatile to the nearby economy, and to numerous, it repudiated the vision of the establishing fathers for a country in which all men are to be free. The South considered subjection as an important foundation for the plantation economy. It was connected to the neighborhood society and society. As the United States extended, the North stressed that the South would bring slavery into the new regions. Slavery had ended up both an ethical