Why Slavery Should Be Abolished

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Similar to any hotly debated topic, slavery was surrounded with many different view points. Many students are led to believe there were only two sides to the slavery debate: those who wanted slavery and those who did not. In general, this was correct. There were actually sub groups of people within these two sides. Different theorists had different ideas about why slavery needed to be upheld or why slavery needed to be abolished. These arguments persisted throughout the United States until they eventual led to the Civil War. The anti-slavery movement consisted of men and women known as abolitionists. Abolitionists believed slavery needed to be eliminated. Many of the anti-slavery arguments had religious roots stemming from the Quakers. Abolitionists viewed the enslavement of another human as a sin and a direct violation of the golden rule. Despite common view points on why slavery should be abolished, the idea of how slavery should be abolished did vary from person to person. William Lloyd Garrison promote immediate abolition. In his his newspaper, The Liberator, Garrison had strong words regarding slavery. “IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION can alone save her [the United States] from the vengeance of Heaven, and cancel the debt of ages!” (149) The previous quote came from an article Garrison wrote in his newspaper. Garrison was one the more extreme abolitionists and his views were not always shared by other abolitionists. Some abolitionists leaned towards gradual abolition. Gradual abolitions believed that current slaves would stay slaves but there would be no new slaves. Any children born to slaves would be free. Gradual abolitionists believed that former slaves would be unable to function in society due to their lack of education. With... ... middle of paper ... ...redd Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom because he had lived in a free state with his master. When the case made it to the Supreme Court they decided that Scott had no right to sue because he was from Missouri where slaves were not considered citizens (203). This was the right legal decision but was based on a bad law. The decision led to the fourteenth amendment of the United States which stated that all men and women born in the United States are citizens of the United States. The slavery arguments of the 1840s led to uneasy compromises that eventual led to an inevitable war. The numerous arguments surrounding slavery gave way to a war of epic proportions for the United States. Both sides had their own reasons and justifications, always believing they were right. Different laws were made to prevent the war but only prolonged the inevitable Civil War.

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