FREE ESSAY ON NATIONAL DEBATE OVER SLAVERY

NATIONAL DEBATE OVER SLAVERY

National Debate over Slavery
The National Debate over Slavery in 17 -1860 was important. Events from the cotton gin,
to the Dred Scott case all played an important roll in slavery and history. Here are a
couple more.
In June 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed. It was a statement of reasons
for the separation between Britain. The declaration sited that all men are created equal.
It meant that people shouldn't be judged by the color of their skin nor their religion.
Throughout the whole declaration, amendments have been added to make the world more
equal. For example, the fifteenth amendment granted African American males the right to
vote, and then in 1920 the nineteenth amendment granted women the right to vote. African
Americans could not help in the Declaration of Independence.
The three-fifths compromise was at the constitutional convention. It called for three
fifths of a states slave population to be counted for purposes of representation. If
slaves were to be included in a state population count, the southern sates with their
many slaves, would go into great power in the House of Representatives. If they were
counted, southern states would be weak in the house. The African Americans still weren't
allowed to vote and their interests wouldn't be represented in congress. 
In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. He had noticed how long it took to clean
cotton seeds from the cotton fibers. The cotton gin was a machine that separated the
seeds from raw cotton fibers. Thus the cotton gin helped keep the southern states a land
of slavery and of farming, while the northern states became a land of free labor and of
industry. The development of the cotton mill industry in the north was cheap cotton which
equaled free labor which than equaled a huge profit for the companies.
The Missouri Compromise was signed into law in 1820. It is also called The Compromise of
1820. It had two main points. First one was that slavery would be permitted in Missouri
and at the same time, Maine was carried out of what had been northern Mass, and admitted
to the union as a free, or non-slave state. This arrangement kept the balance in the
senate between slave and free states. Second, congress agreed that as the US expanded
westward state north 36, 30N latitude would be free states. 
The Underground Railroad was a network of escape routes that provided protection and
transpiration for slaves flowing north to freedom. Slaves had to travel by foot or wagon
across the Canadian border just to be free or where no slave-hunters could find them.
About 40,000 to 100,000 men, women, and children were rescued. They traveled on dark
nights in the depth of the woods; one true woman by the name of Harriett Tubman rescued
over 300 people. The activities of the Underground Railroad generated a great deal of
publicity and sympathy.
The abolitionist movement was the movement to the end of slavery. Fredrick Douglass is
one of America's most influential African American abolitionists. He couldn't get an
education so he had white children teach him to read and he taught himself as well.
Douglass ended up serving as an advisor for President Abraham Lincoln. John Brown was an
abolitionist crusader who massacred US slavery settlers in Kansas. Brown hoped to inspire
slave revolt. With the 1859 attack on VA arsenal. Brown was executed for treason against
the state of VA. Harriet Beecher Stowe, was an author. She wrote under Tom's Cabin, which
contributed significantly to anti southern feelings among northerners before the Civil
War.
The Compromise of 1850 was a compromise for slavery. It was composed of five separate
laws. It was an agreement designed to ease tensions over the expansion of slavery into
western territories. The five laws were: 1) congress would admit CA as a free state. 2)
people would decide for themselves if slavery was legal 3) congress would abolish the
sale of enslaved people in Washington D.C. 4) slavery itself would remain legal in
Washington D.C. 5) a Fugitive Slave act would order all citizens of the United States to
assist in the return of enslaved people who had escaped from their owners. It would also
deny a jury trial to escaped slaves.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act. It was a law in 1854 that called on citizen in each territory to
deicide the issue of slavery there. It, also, supported the practice of popular
sovereignty, or letting the people in a territory decide whether slavery would be allowed
there. Douglass asked the nation to repel the Missouri Compromise and rely on popular
sovereignty and not of the latitudes. After the months of debate, congress passed the
act. Douglass's own party members were outraged by it. They saw Douglass as a sell out to
the south.
In March 1897 the Supreme Court handed down on of the most controversial decisions in its
history, Scott V. Sanford. The case stated when Dred Scott, an enslaved man living in
Missouri, had filed suit against his owner, they argued that because he and his wife had
once lived in states and territories where slavery was illegal, they thought they should
be free. The justices held that Scott, therefore, all slaves, were not citizens and had
no right to sue in court, it ended up saying the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional
and slaves were the property of there owners. The courts hoped not to deal with slavery
issues again.
The formation of the republican party was during the summer of 1854, people throughout
the north help meetings to protest the Kansas- Nebraska bill. During one of these
meetings in Michigan, discussed northerner launched a new Republican Party. This party is
the direct ancestor of today's party by the same name. The new members of the Republican
Party dedicated themselves to stopping the slave power for the south. The election of
1860 played a big roll in the parties. It was clear that the majority of the northerners
would not accept leadership by a southerner. Southerners, likewise, announced that they
would not accept a leader from the ranks of the anti slaver republicans in the north. The
November election made it absolutely clear that there were no longer any national
political parties.
So, all these things mentioned above all added to the national debate over slavery
between 17__-1860. They all had something to do with slavery. They helped it and then
they didn't.