Unit 5 – Essay 3
Slavery will always be remembered as one of this country’s greatest tragedies. Slavery was never going to be an event that would end with the stroke of a pen (Emancipation Proclamation), or an exchange of words. Despite the most heroic efforts of both white and black abolitionists, it would take a Civil War to force the hand of slave supporting southern confederate states. Therefore it is valid to say that “Despite the work of the Abolitionist Movement, the only way to end slavery was though violence.”
Even though there were many differences between Northern States and Southern States, the belief of Southerners in slavery and more importantly, their refusal to give it up ultimately led to a violent clash known as the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln once said, during a meeting with a Committee of Colored Men on August 14th 1862, that the injustice of slavery was largely at fault for the commencement of Civil War. He went on to add, “It is not the Negro that is the cause of the war; it is the unwillingness on the part of the American people to do the race simple justice.” [1]
Slavery had long been a problem in the United States. Movements in this country starting in the early 1800’s began to push for the end of it. In an effort to abolish slavery for good, the Abolitionist Movement was established. The movement began in the North, as opposed to the South, where slavery was praised. The goal of the abolitionists was to finally put an end to slavery completely.
Essay on the Abolitionist Movement in America
... that slavery is immoral, abolitionists radicalized this great movement.While the abolitionist movement turned radical in 1836, many abolitionists remained conservative. Many abolitionists still ... During the thirty years that preceded the Civil War, abolitionism was a major factor in electoral ... this Society is the entire abolition of Slavery in the United State. Slaveholding is a heinous crime in the ...
Under the influence of Evangelical religion, a growing realization of Southern commitment to slavery, and especially the British antislavery movement, American abolitionist found their ideological roots in the 1820’s.[2] In 1831, after William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator abolitionist societies began to spring up across the North. By 1838 the year Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery, the movement had flooded Congress with petitions, experienced intense and deadly anti abolition violence, awakened a defiant South, and caused many conversions in the reformist North. [3]
The anti slavery campaign produced intense feelings and opinions in both sides. As the anti slavery argument gained in strength, violence also increased. In 1831 in Southampton, Virginia, Nat Turner, a slave preacher, led a revolt which he said was the result of a direct commandment to him by God. The bloody revolt caused the death of fifty white people before Turner and his followers were captured and hanged. As the rage against slavery mounted, so did the feelings of its defenders. In the North whites who feared and hated both black and white opponents of slavery broke up abolitionist meetings, tarred and feathered abolitionist speakers, and burned the offices of abolitionist newspapers.
In the South more and more people defended slavery and their belief in white supremacy, which was the control of political, social, and economic life by whites only. More and more Southerners were driven further and further away from Democratic ways. By 1859 conflicts between those that favored slavery and leaders of the Abolitionist Movement began to peak. This led to the interesting question, can a society be purified by violent means? Also in 1859, John Brown acted on a plan that he believed would free slaves by force. He and twenty of his followers moved into Harper’s Ferry, Virginia and seized the government arsenal from surprised workers. They then gathered a few slaves and some prisoners and hoped for a full blown slave revolt. Even though the raid ended up being a total failure, the deepest fears of Southern whites had been touched. Southerners believed that the North had supported Brown in his actions. In 1860 hundreds of thousands of Southerners believed that all Republicans were secretly in favor of actions like John Brown’s. The South would soon cecede from the Union, Fort Sumter was attacked and the nation on the brink of war.
The Essay on Slavery Slaves In The North
Thesis: Slaves managed to be the main beneficiaries of a movement so entirely unintended for them because, in a series of coincidences brought about by certain effects of Northern progress and improvement, the promotion of their interests became profitable to to the concerns of other classes. Counter-argument: some might argue that slaves could not have been the primary beneficiaries of the ...
Even though President Lincoln had tried to arrive at a patient compromise, passionate Americans on both sides were past the point of reason. Slavery in the United States had horribly evolved over many years. Strong opinions on both sides led to violent acts and strong confrontations. In the end no one would listen to reason. The only way to end slavery would be through the violence of a Civil War.
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[1] Page 318 Looking for Lincoln
[2] Page 8 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
[3] Page 8 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave