Ending Slavery in the U.S.-
Prior to and during the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860,
slavery was a major issue in the United States. From 1830-1850 (also
known as the Era of Reform) cotton became the center of America’s
economy. The more cotton that was grown, the more slave labor was
needed to pick it. This drew a lot of attention to slaves and their
human rights. Many anti-slavery societies were formed and slavery
soon became a major issue. By 1860, slavery became the center of
attention in the US. You either lived in a slave state or a free
state, owned slaves or were protesting against it. The election of
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was the climax of the issue of slavery. Since
he had proposed to forbid the extension of slavery in new
territories, seven of the slave states seceded from the Union and
established there own Confederacy. They were prepared to fight for
their rights to own slaves. This caused a Civil War. So this leaves
one question- should the ending of slavery been a goal of the Lincoln
administration?
The Grolier Encyclopedia defines slavery as “a societal
institution based on the ownership, dominance and exploitation of one
human by being another human’s property.” There is proof that slaves
The Essay on Human rights issue
? Patrick Henry once said “Give me liberty or give me death. ” Most people agree with what he said because freedom is what makes life worth living. People should have certain freedoms no matter what country they live in. In the book Enrique’s Journey it shows how people in Latin America are often denied the right to travel which is also a problem in America and this can cause people to travel ...
existed as far back as 4th millennium bc. The first slaves to exist
in the US where in 1680 in Jamestown, VA. In 1860 there where 14
slave states in the US and 15 free states. Slaves in the 1860’s were
used for doing laborious work on plantations, often picking/growing
crops, they were also used as domestic servants. They often received
a shelter ,of some sort, to live in, clothes, food and plenty of
resting time. They were more often then not treated with the highest
respect from their owners as they were valuable property and only
were beaten or whipped as a punishment. Because of the South’s method
of “cash-crop farming”, slaves were needed to maintain large
plantations growing crops. In a sense, the South needed slaves to
help grow crops to trade with the North. Farming was the only thing
the South could do to make money.
Instead of ending slavery altogether, he could have passed
laws pertaining to the owning and treatment of slaves. Since most
people opposing slavery argued that it was immoral and
unconstitutional, he could have passed laws limiting the amount of
work a slave could do, setting a minimum amount of food that a slave
could receive and a minimum wage. Lincoln could have also made it
illegal to punish a slave by physical abuse.
Another point to look at is if all the slaves were freed,
where would they go? Most slave families were large, with 3-8
children. Most slaves never owned personal possessions, had hardly any
money, and there only home was the place where the worked. Freeing the
slaves would have left millions of people homeless with children to
take care of. Most would have died of disease, hunger, being cold, or
would have been arrested for stealing food to feed themselves.
Lincoln should have passed laws guaranteeing the children of slaves
to be free. This would have allowed the slaves to prevent their
children from being homeless and poor. The slaves could have saved
money that they earned being a slave for their children or the
government could have issued checks to help the children of slaves be
free with a home and able to get a descent job.
The Term Paper on Street Children in South Africa
During September 1993 an investigation was launched on the lifestyle, activities, experiences, and background of street children in Pretoria, South Africa. Qualitative rather than quantitative interviews were conducted to gather as much information as possible on the total life situation and subjective experiences of these children. This article focuses specifically on their background. The ...
In conclusion, the South saw the ending of slavery as an
economic disaster and in fact the freeing of slaves would leave the
slaves with nothing but their freedom. Freedom to go without food
and shelter. Lincoln should have compromised by passing laws to
insure decent treatment of slaves currently owned in the South and
insuring that the next generation of African-Americans should be born
free.
