The American Amplification Of Slavery During The Civil War

After living in years of peace, one event changed American history. The Americans were living a glorious life, but as arguments started to arise, the country began to split apart. Since the beginning of country, slave labor has been of important use. Many states in the North slowly started to abolish slavery, but the South did not want to end slavery. As more states joined the United States, debates grew if they should be free states or slave states. Many Southern states argued for the balance of slave and free states. Many people tried to compromise, but nothing would satisfy both the North and South. In the end it was brother against brother, in the fight for freedom!

Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. The conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which lead to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable and inhumane acts of slavery.

During the 18th and 19th centuries slavery was economically efficient, but more importantly a social aspect of almost everyone’s life. There was an extreme importance depending on the existence of slavery in the majority of white land owners and also the South’s economy. Slaves also greatly contributed and were an important role to America’s history. Another important aspect of slavery was the nature of their life in America, their culture, and how this intertwined into the slave’s relationship with their master. Culture contributed a great deal in their religion and family as well. As many slaves as there were, conflict would very easily ignite with other slaves, but even more so with a master, which often lead to slave revolts or slave resistance. Slaves not only left a historical footprint on early America, but they also formed an important foundation for the country we know today.

The American Revolution was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for slaves, or at least some. African Americans played a huge part in the war for both sides. Lord Dunmore, a governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave that enlisted into the British army. Colonists’ previously denied enlistment to African American’s because of the response of the South, but hesitantly changed their minds in fear of slaves rebelling against them. The north had become to despise slavery and wanted it gone. On the contrary, the booming cash crops of the south were making huge profits for landowners, making slavery widely popular. After the war, slaves began to petition the government for their freedom using the ideas of the Declaration of Independence,” including the idea of natural rights and the notion that government rested on the consent of the governed.” (Keene 122). The north began to fr...

The controversies surrounding slavery have been established in many societies worldwide for centuries. In past generations, although slavery did exists and was tolerated, it was certainly very questionable,” ethically“. Today, the morality of such an act would not only be unimaginable, but would also be morally wrong. As things change over the course of history we seek to not only explain why things happen, but as well to understand why they do. For this reason, we will look further into how slavery has evolved throughout History in American society, as well as the impacts that it has had.

An iconic time period for the United States was best known as the Civil War. This war in its worst moments still brought forth a change in the American society which was arguably, slavery. Unfortunately, the change that sought for came at a costly price. The lives of over 700,000 Americans were lost in exchange for the freedom of over three million slaves. The time period that came after the civil war was what many famous historians would call “The Era of Reconstruction”. Though this particular era was difficult to maintain, it was necessary for the nation to rebuild, implement new laws and add structure. Huge criticism of this era was largely due to the fact many Americans did not know the importance that was contradicted nor the reality of reconstruction, and what this era actually did for the nation.

The Civil War in America is known to this day for being the pivotal turning point for slavery. But all the events in American politics that took place in the years prior to the war are just as crucial. Slavery was the solid foundation to America’s Political history because tremendous impact that the compromise of 1850, abolitionist/proslavery incidents, and the election of 1860 had. It is interesting to think about how different America would’ve been were it not for these exciting times in history. How much longer would America have been divided over the battle involving slavery? Although that will never be known, it is undeniably true that these events defined and changed our nation in a time of crisis.

In Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery the authors delve into the complexity and the dependency of the American economy on the free labor system pre and post Civil War. Providing compelling evidence of the North’s involvement in slavery well beyond the Southern cotton industry. In addition, Complicity provides the narrative of how the concept of “race” evolved in America. Slavery and racism are interwoven throughout U.S. history however they are distinctly different slavery was a labor system whereas the idea of race was a social construct that reinforced stratification in society. In the late 1830s and 1840s a number of “scientific and systematic writings on race emerged, primarily a reaction to abolitionist assaults on slavery.” (Wilson, 1996 p.75) It was these scientific findings that supported the social construct of race ideology, which was used to rationalize slavery, and formed the bases of racial discrimination that has shaped America’s culture.

In the early nineteenth century slavery was at question at large, by any means. It was almost supported by most all of the country’s leaders. People were happy where they were wanting to just farm, and start a new life in America. Thomas Jefferson can really be the one who is credited with the expansionist ideals the engulfed the thoughts of America for more than half a century. With the Louisiana purchase and the expeditions of Lewis and Clark people were able to get with this idea, that the west was great, and that spreading out was a good idea. This plan soon turned into an era of its self in U.S. history, and show cased the drive for economic success that citizens of the U.S. had. and leading up to the 1850’s the institution of slavery was the premier way to make the most money. The south was the primary enforcer of this peculiar institution, and as the money poured in from their precious “king cotton” the south found themselves dependent on cotton, especially through a wake of economic change. The ...

After the American Revolution, slavery began to decrease in the North, just as it was becoming more popular in the South. By the turn of the century, seven of the most Northern states had abolished slavery. During this time, a surge of democratic reform swept the North to the West, and there were demands for political equality, economic and social advances for all Americans. Northerners said that slavery revoked the human right of being a free person and when new territories became available i...

Roark, J.L., Johnson, M.P., Cohen, P.C., Stage, S., Lawson, A., Hartmann, S.M. (2009). The american promise: A history of the united states (4th ed.), The New West and Free North 1840-1860, The slave south, 1820-1860, The house divided 1846-1861 (Vol. 1, pp. 279-354).

There was a point in time where there was more hostility between the United States and Fort Sumter but there was also a point in time where all of that hostility ended that’s when the Civil War ended. But during the beginning of the CIvil War it was still there. The truth is after this the United States finally became truly one state.

The institution of slavery is a black mark on the record of Americans. Marking a time of hate and racism, an oppression spurred by fear that would plague our nation for decades upon decades. An Act for the Better Order and Government of Negroes and Slaves, and Conflicts between Masters and Slaves: Maryland in the Mid-Seventeenth Century, illustrate the dismay and panic European Colonials endured as they enslaved Africans. This dismay and panic generated laws to be established that further widened the gap between Europeans and Africans, stripping the Africans of any legal rights. The dismay and panic concerned loosing a valuable economic pawn.

The slaves and slave owners in the Americas resulted in the concept of white supremacy, consequently causing vast social divisions among the wealthy Caucasians and poor Africans. These seemingly trivial actions to obtain affluence led America into the national issues that still patronize the United States to this day. Furthermore, “The plight and problems of workers today , black and white, may be directly traceable to African slavery in the United States” (Diggs 157). Even though, slavery was legalized during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, they were eventually slavery becomes a major rationale of the Civil War. Although, through this conflict and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, blacks in the United States allowed us to free the slaves they did not gain human rights until after the Civil Rights Act, thirteenth amendment, and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s were established. The social repercussions of bringing slavery in the United States via Triangular Trade needs to remain heavily embedded in our history courses in order to prevent recurrences of social oppression for future