Slavery Argument During The Antebellum Period

In the United States there was a heated debate about the morality of slavery. Supporters of slavery in the 18th century used legal, economic, and religious arguments to defend slavery. They were able to do so effectively because all three of these reasons provide ample support of the peculiar institution that was so vital to the South.

The Abolitionist movement during the Antebellum period, was a critical time in American history. The goal of this movement was to emancipate all slaves immediately, and end discrimination, as well as segregation. The brave men and women involved in this movement were called abolitionists and antislavery advocates. The antislavery advocates stood for freeing slaves gradually, and abolitionists wanted slavery gone immediately. No matter how fast, these people all wanted to spread opposition against slavery across the United States. Northern churches started liking this whole idea of abolishing slavery, which started conflict between the North and South. These arguments led up to the Civil War.

In this speech, his last address to the Senate, Calhoun decries the Missouri Compromise and warns of a disruption in the Union if the Southern states were not given full and permanent protection to continue their institutions – namely slavery. He understood with precise clarity that if anti-slavery thought spread throughout the North, then it would only be a matter of time before Civil War erupted between the North and South. A lot of his speech focuses on the incompatibility of the Northern and Southern views on slavery, and suggests that if the South cannot gain equal protection for their slavery system, then the Union should separate into two nations. Clearly stating that " abolition and the Union cannot

Calhoun bluntly states in his opening sentence he knew that if something was not done about the abolition of slavery it would end in disunion. He claims to have tried to agitate both parties toward some kind of resolve but to no avail. He then asks Congress the pressing question: “How can the Union be preserved?”

Throughout American history slave has resist their master, the system and the idea of slavery. These resistance has became of a key stone in the history of slavery. To understand what these resistance is, we will look at incident of the past to analyze how slave in the past resisted their master, the system and the idea of slavery.

The Civil War, occurring between the years 1861 and 1865, was a devastating effect of sectionalism caused by the division of the country on the topic of slavery. Slavery impacted every aspect of the country, whether in the North or the South, though primarily in the South; major impacts were in the politics and economy of the early country ways which inevitably caused the Civil War.

In addition, Kolchin gives the readers the catalysts for the events in the history of slavery. Economic,

During the nineteenth century in America the issue of slavery became a huge ordeal between many groups of people. In the South this issue was more prominent than in the North due to many factors, which included the economy, way of life, and beliefs of southern whites. The need for slaves increased after the invention of the cotton gin so slaves were high in demand for processing cotton. In the South, the economical system revolved around the use of slaves due to the strong agricultural economy that had been formed. Justifications such as the use of the Gospel, and examining how slavery helped to boost the economy gave the whites all the reason more to keep slavery around. Slavery was a way of life for many generations and it had no signs of changing no matter how bad the North pushed the issue that slavery was wrong.

Calhoun believed the liberty Southerners enjoyed depended on slavery. Contrary to the writings of those who unabashedly celebrated the North's free labor system, antebellum Southern society, though definitely stratified, was highly fluid. Fortunes could be and were made in a single generation. Agriculture, specifically cotton, was what made that society so mobile. Cotton was a labor-intensive crop, and as a farmer acquired greater cotton wealth, he required a greater number of field hands to work his expanding fields. So the ownership of slaves became a measure of status and upward mobility. To destroy slavery, according to Calhoun, would be to destroy a powerful symbol of what motivated the Southern man to improve himself, but in turn, slavery had to continue.

When examining the roots of the South’s secession from the United States, it is difficult to single out one event or cause as the sole contributor. In reality, there were several factors that contributed to the staunch divide between the North and South. Among the most notable causes, alongside the issue of slavery, was the debate over principles like state sovereignty and majority rule. Overall, Abraham Lincoln and John C. Calhoun best encapsulate this particular argument. Calhoun, despite his death occurring over a decade before the Civil War, was one of the earliest and most prominent proponents of the South’s secession from the Union. As a Senator for South Carolina, Calhoun advocated the importance of each state’s sovereignty while

He also discusses the idea that equality of races would end all progress towards power and wealth as a nation. Calhoun also agrees with Fitzhugh’s ideas that Africans are better off as slaves than as a working class, because they are created to do labor. He also states that because each state has its equal rights, abolition would be against the government. And finally, Calhoun argues that the way things are between master and slave is the best way to co-exist as a two distinctly different races. The thing that makes Calhoun’s arguments so powerful is because of his political status as a vice president and his position in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the House of the Senate.

During the Antebellum period, the North and South were divided into two sections. The North opposed slavery while the South believed that it ultimately benefitted society, creating conflicting views on many different issues. The issues that were brought about during the antebellum period between the North and the South were centered around what type of societies slavery created. Although the North and South had some similarities during the antebellum period, the North and South were consistently more different in many aspects.

The goal of the civil war was never originally to free slaves but slaves became a large part of the war. African American slaves overcame many challenges to finally receive their freedom. Many African Americans endured the chance to fight for the union and that immensely increased the man power of the union.

In the nineteenth century, supporters of slavery used legal, religious, and economic arguments to defend the institution of slavery. Southern plantation owners depended heavily on slavery. Cotton, their main export, required tedious slave labor. Thus, southern supporters of slavery employed whatever tactics they could in order to keep their slaves from emancipation, which worked and extended slavery for a few more decades. As the abolition movement picked up, southerners became organized in their support of slavery in what became known as the pro-slavery movement.

In the decades leading to the Civil War, both the North and the South had differing ideals on slavery. The North supported the abolition of slavery due to unethical and unconstitutional morals the Union strived to move away from, while the Southern Confederacy was against the movement, primarily due to the need and beliefs held toward slaves. According to John Calhoun, a Southerner who defended slavery, he felt it was impossible for the Union and Confederacy to reach a compromise, and once abolition was successful, the United States would fall into anarchy, stating, “abolition and the Union cannot coexist” (Calhoun, pg. 1). Calhoun’s views were similarly shared with George Fitzhugh, who expanded upon Calhoun’s views on the collapse of society due to abolition, stating, “They [Union] hold that all men, women, and negroes, and smart children are equals, and entitled to equal rights…