During the Antebellum period, the issue of slavery affected many religious and political debates. This was seen in the Lincoln Douglass debates, legislation, and the evolution of political parties.
The political debates that fueled the slavery controversy were derived
from legislation. The first legislation passed was the three-fifths compromise. Naturally, southern states wanted slaves to be counted as a whole person because the slave population in the south was larger. The northern states opposed this. The three-fifths compromise stated that three out of five slaves would be counted into population counts to determine the amount of representation in Congress. Other constitutional laws included the section that said the slave trade was to end in 1808 and the 16th amendment that allowed a levy on income tax. This especially affected free blacks because it was then allowed to impose a poll tax on them. One important piece of legislation that affected the slave debate was The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. The Fugitive Slave Act was “An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters," If a slave escaped they were to be arrested and punished in a manner that fit the place where the slave escaped. This law was later made stricter in 1850.
Originally the two parties that were established were the Whigs and the Democrats. These parties evolved and changed as legislation evolved. More states were entering the Union and it was to be decided which states should be slave states and which should be free. This issue was one of the main divides during the antebellum period. The first piece of legislation to comment on this issue was the Missouri Compromise of passed in 1820. Henry Clay came up...
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...ependence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” His solution was containment of slavery to the south. The North was used to change and could more easily get rid of slavery, yet the South could not.
Lincoln won the election of 1860. The issue of slavery evolved from an issue of containment to one of equality. It shaped the politics of the antebellum period this time and drove America to a different era.
Works Cited
PBS, Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h62.html
Hugh Brogan, The Penguin History of the USA (London: Penguin Books, 2001), 294.
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John Brown, "Speech to the Court at His Trial, "John Brown’s Speech to the Court at His Trial, 1859
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass, debate on slavery,1860
The election of President Abraham Lincoln became the catalyst for the events leading to the Civil War. Lincoln represented the Republican Party who believed that all men should be free and that it was wrong to maintain people as slaves, ...
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The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 was a very influential event that occurred in American history and has much significance, even till this day. The debates were in contest for the United States Senate seat in Illinois. The main topic involved in the debates was based around slavery and the separation of the union because of it. Both Lincoln and Douglas refer to the U.S. Constitution in their remarks and state different opinions surrounding what they interpret the meaning of certain parts regarding slavery to be.
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1860 was a critical year in the history of the United States of America. America's position as a country established on principles of freedom had been weakened by slavery. It was an election year and Abraham Lincoln (b. Feb. 12, 1809 - d. April 15, 1865) was nominated for the presidency of the United States, representing the Republican Party. The Democratic Party was divided into two wings - a Northern Wing with Stephen A. Douglas as its candidate and a Southern Wing with John C. Breckinridge as the other candidate for the presidency of the United States.
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Throughout the history of mankind, slavery has existed in one form or another. Since the times of ancient civilizations to modern era subjugations, there have forces who feel strongly of its necessity and purpose, while others have devoted themselves to seeing the ideas and acts of slavery abolished. America is not an exception to the concept of slavery and during the nation’s early history, parties from both sides have been made famous for their beliefs in the continuation or the denouncement of slavery in the United States. To understand the contrasting views of pro-slavery advocates versus abolitionists in antebellum America, a comparison of the individual positions must be made to further understand the goals of each party.
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Since the beginning of their new nation, the United States had many differences between the Northern and Southern states. During the Constitutional Convention they disagreed on how to determine their representation in the house based on population; the Southerners wanted to count their slaves and the Northerners did not, which lead to the three-fifths compromise. Later in the Convention there were concessions given to the South, which left the Northerners feeling uneasy, such as: a guarantee that the slave trade would not be interfered with by Congress until 1808 and slave owners were given the right to recover refugee slaves from anywhere in the United States. While many Northern delegates were disappointed with the rights given to the South, they felt it was necessary for the good of the Nation. This was necessary to form a strong central government and union between the states.