Preview

The Role Of Slavery In The Civil War

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
873 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Role Of Slavery In The Civil War
Slavery
Slavery was one of the worst conflicts in the Civil War and was the worst decision of mankind. Slavery impacted all of our policies, laws, and societal norms by showing us that most of the population of southern people had plantations back in the 1860s and later on. The civil war was fought for states rights and for slavery, either keeping it which the southerners wanted or completely getting rid of it which the northerners wanted all along. Abolitionists fought to end slavery. In the decades before the Civil War, anti-slavery sentiment sparked an abolitionists movement that employed risky and radical tactics to bring an end to slavery. Meaning they wanted to end racial discrimination. Also abolitionists were usually people trying to
…show more content…
Like homes of people that disagreed with the slavery idea used their houses as safe houses and secret routes were just paths to help slaves find there way to the safe houses. Americans like William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman were only some of the key abolitionists. As Frederick Douglass put it in May of 1861, the best way to end Civil War was by killing slavery once and for all. If abolitionists did not cause the Civil War, they shaped its meaning. The underground railroad was influenced by the abolitionists. Not content to wait for laws to change or for slavery to implode itself, railroad activists helped individual fugitive slaves find the light of freedom. Harriet Tubman is sometimes referred to as the Moses of her people because of the way she led them out of slavery. The Underground Railroad operated at night. The underground railroad was a huge impact on the civil war from the beginning people did not agree with the southerners so they stood up and decided to help. Slaves codes were state laws established to determine the status of slaves and the rights of their owners. Slave codes placed harsh restrictions on slaves already limited freedoms, often in order to preempt rebellion or escape, and gave slave owners absolute power over their …show more content…
Also the Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War 1846–1848. A Fugitive Slave Law was passed, requiring northerners to return runaway slaves to their owners under penalty of law. The Compromise of 1850 overturned the Missouri Compromise and left the overall issue of slavery

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American History. It is estimated that 620,000 men died fighting for their respective sides(civilwar.org [1]). It is thought that nearly 50,000 civilians died during the course of the war (nps.gov [1]).It is a topic that is very well known, especially in the southern parts of the United States. Many people fought and died in this war because of the differing opinions of the southern and northern sections of the United States. Slavery was the most prominent of these differing opinions.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harriet Tubman expressed these themes with her dedication and encouragement. She was the strength and spirit of the Underground Railroad since she guided slaves to Canada. As a result of her guidance, she helped free three hundred people in her career. Saving these people shows…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civil War Dbq Analysis

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The north had abolitionists who tried to inform the public and even go down and free slaves in the south to the north. They used the system called the Underground Railroad, which was a series of safe houses where a slave could hide until they made it up far enough north to be free. Other abolitionists wrote newspapers and magazines such as Garrison's "The Liberator" and Douglas's "The Northern Star". One publishing that really hit the mark was Harriet Beacher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. As shown in Document F it was a major hit in the north, it told of the cruelties of slavery and how the slave overseers separated black families. In the south this book was often banned, the people hated it saying that it unfairly portrayed the south. Both sides were also trying to get more slave or free states. When a territory gained enough people it would go to congress saying what it wanted to enter as. Each state had a counter part, until California wanted to enter the union as a free state. So with this the Compromise of 1850 came about. California entered as a free state, the fugitive slave law became more strictly enforced and the Kansas territory would go under popular sovereignty when it would become a state. This new compromise would completely null and void the compromise of 1820 saying that slavery could happen above the 36*30' line. But when this happened people started to pour into the Kansas territory. Bloody fights broke out as free and slave supporters fought each other. But even with all of the slave supporters flowing in from Missouri, Kansas still came in as a free state. This time became known as Bleeding Kansas. After Bleeding Kansas one of the major people for the free side went to Pennsylvania. John Brown brought a few followers to the military arms base at Harpers Ferry in hopes he would be able to start an…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With slavery dating back to the early 1400s there has always been attempts made by slaves to escape to freedom. These attempts, even with careful planning and the perfect opprotunity usually ended in failure. But with hate for slavery started spreading and the rise of the abolitionists in the North the number of escape attempts began to rise. But this time the slaves had help. Abolitionists in both the North and South began to construct secret escape routes for slaves. They called it the Underground Railroad, although it wasn’t really a railroad. It was a network of anti-slavery men and woman who would provide escapies with directions, sanctuary and any help they needed on their way to the North. These abolitionists called themselves Conductors.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    They were trying to find a way out of their misery. There was one way the ‘Underground Railroad’. The Underground Railroad was a chain of different routes that slaves used to escape the south and enter the north or Canada where slavery was abolished but, the runaway slaves still faced discrimination in the north. Like in modern railroads, the Underground railroad had conductors. The conductors helped to lead other runaway slaves to their freedom.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A true abolitionist knew how to free the slaves, however Lincoln did not have an idea about what the government should do. He thought that the way to solve slavery was to send the blacks to colonize in Africa or Central America. It was believed that since there was tension, it is…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harriet Tubman helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. She risked her life helping runaways, knowing that if they were to get caught, her punishment would be worse than the escapees and the whole organization would be exposed, and this would lead to putting others in danger. Not only was Tubman putting herself at risk, but the slaves were also risking their lives by following her lead. The trip was trying, but they had to keep going since getting to freedom isn’t easy. Slaves were educated since giving slaves an education would prove to be a threat to the slave system and it was illegal.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery is what I believe caused the Civil War for many reasons. One reason why I think slavery was a major issue in the 1860s is because it divided the country into half free, and half slave. " A house divided against itself cannot stand [Doc F]." This quote from Abraham Lincoln shows how other people thought about the country, and slavery. Another reason why slavery caused the Civil War is because if the north kept its freedom and the south kept its slaves then the country is going to fall apart, not from the outside but from the inside. " I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free [Doc F]." Another quote from Abraham Lincoln. There is no way that a country can stand half and half, it would be logical to think that someday one will take over the other. Since Abraham Lincoln was nominated to be President, South got unhappy, quick. South Carolina threatened to secede and many people led revolts against slavery. This is what sparked America to go to war.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders both believed they were defending the Constitution prior to the Civil War. Though both believed that they were trying to defend their Constitutional rights, their opposition was what led to war breaking out. Northern abolitionists believed that to best act on the rights set by the Constitution they needed to free slaves. They argued that African-Americans were people, and should have the rights of freedom as American Citizens. They thought that all slaves should be set free from their masters with no compensation to the slaveowners.…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery was a commonly debated issue during the early 1800’s. The issue of slavery caused individuals to question if slavery was against the Constitution. Slavery slowly was dying out in America, most prominently in the North, but when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, the hope of slavery dying out in the South ended. Slaves were now a very important part of Southern economy, because unlike the industrialized North, the main source of income for the South was cotton farmed by thousands of slaves on plantations.…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Later she went back to help other runaways, she became an important person for the slaves history. The Underground Railroad was a secret slavery escape route formed in the early 19th hundreds. Slaves walked long distances, mostly at night time to reach for freedom. Canada was a popular destination, but the slaves also went to northern states without slavery in their own country.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abolitionists either wanted gradual emancipation of slavery or wanted an immediate emancipation , either way they all had the same goal of wanting to end slavery. At separate times when California applied for statehood as a free state and Missouri applied for statehood as a slave state, they both sparked bitter national debates, ultimately congress reached a series of agreements for both events that became known as the Missouri Compromise in 1821 and the Compromise of 1850. These compromises helped abolitionists in their efforts of achieving their goals because they both limited the expansion of slavery which gave the North hopes that the country is moving more towards the side of abolishing slavery. The North was influenced by Uncle Tom’s Cabin which showed the brutal reality of a slave’s life and starting in 1877 when Vermont amended its constitution to ban slavery the states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode island, New York, and New Jersey followed its footsteps and banned the institution, even the Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in the Northwest Territory, all of these emancipations laws created a free North. Abolitionists like Theodore Weld and James Birney were huge supporters and were a large part of the achievements of the abolitionist movement during the Age of Reform, abolitionists like them stayed on the safe path to end slavery because others like John Brown simply lead reckless revolutions and killings such as Bleeding Kansas and John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The thought of being an African American slave in the 1860’s is a terrifying thought for most people. The struggles they faced in order to achieve were very extreme. Luckily there were people who did not agree with the way African Americans were treated back then. There was an escape route called the Underground Railroad. Contrary to what it sounds like, the Underground railroad was not a railroad nor one single route. It was a combination of secret escape trails for slaves to use that lead to 14 different free states. There were many things that contributed to the workings of the Underground Railroad such as famous historical influences that helped slaves, how the routes worked, and punishments to the slaves for trying to escape to freedom.…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A strong and powerful lady said these wise words: “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me”. The brave women who said these words were Harriet Tubman and she was one of the leaders of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves reach freedom. “Although not an actual railroad of steel rails, locomotives and steam engines, the Underground Railroad was real nevertheless” (encyclopedia The Civil War and African Americans 329) The term “Underground Railroad” referred to the network of safe houses, transportation and the many very kind hearted people who risked their own lives to help the slaves escape from the Southern States to freedom. Many different kinds of transportation were actually used. Sometimes the slaves would travel by foot or they could be hidden on boats, or hide in wagons or carts carrying vegetables or other goods The runaway slaves became known as “passengers”, and the route traveled was the “line” while people who helped out along the way were called the “agents”. Leaders like Harriet Tubman who would travel with the slaves that were escaping, were called “conductors”.…

    • 1698 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Planter Class

    • 2121 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The most dangerous to the slave was to run away. Whether for a short period of time to visit loved ones or an attempt to flee slavery itself, the slave had the risk of being returned, punished, or killed. The Underground Railroad, a connected safe havens ran by people who did not support slavery and were willing to take the risk of hiding the slave from those that persuaded them. It was created to help slaves get to freedom in Canada. These railroads had many “conductors’ one of which was Harriet Tubman, who made the return trip 20 times to lead slaves to freedom.…

    • 2121 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays