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The Legacy Of The Antebellum Period

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The Antebellum period, meaning “pre-war” in Latin, is defined in American History as the period before the Civil War and after the War of 1812. It was marked by the rise of abolition and the steady polarization of the nation between the viewpoints of pro and anti-slavery and the people behind them. The two sides bitterly argued for their cause. Advocates of slavery included religion, economics, morals, politics, and even the Constitution to further their arguments; likewise, abolitionists used similar counterarguments and these sweeping movements fueled by persuasion became increasingly fierce and forever transformed the nation. To start the evaluation of these movements, let’s evaluate the advocates of slavery and their reasoning. Defenders of slavery used religion as major case for slavery’s justness. The Bible was used extensively. Thomas Stringfellow, for instance, said slavery had “The sanction of the Almighty in the Patriarchal Age”. He also, in his book Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slaver, stated that Abraham had owned slaves. These examples were used to develop that God condoned slavery and that it was full or mercy. Nonetheless, slavery was a brutal establishment and far from altruistic. Advocates of slavery also argued that the sudden end of the slave economy would have had a severe and deleterious financial impact on the South. James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow published an article which said “Without the institution of slavery the great staple

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