How slavery helped start the Civil War:
Northern opinion on slavery
This paper is an advertisement about an anti-slavery fair in New York.
-Most in the North were opposed to slavery.
-Most of the farmers in the North had little economic incentive to use slaves, therefore usually giving them little incentive to support slavery.
-Many immigrants came to the North were they often worked in Northern factories, these immigrants often became voters opposed to slavery as they feared that slavery would threaten free labor, and lessen the standing of white workers who were unable compete with slaves.
-Most of the farmers in the North had little economic incentive to use slaves, therefore usually giving them little incentive to support slavery.
-Many immigrants came to the North were they often worked in Northern factories, these immigrants often became voters opposed to slavery as they feared that slavery would threaten free labor, and lessen the standing of white workers who were unable compete with slaves.
Southern opinion on slavery
-However most in the South supported slavery.
-Slaves were the main form of wealth in the South, at an estimated worth of 3 billion dollars. Some southerners feared that if slavery were to end they would lose the money they had invested on slaves.
-Furthermore many people in the South believed that slavery made all whites of equal status and gave whites liberty, many southerners feared that if slavery ended whites would lose their rights and liberty.
-Some southerners wanted slavery to continue and expand since it would increase their chances of getting slaves.
-Slaves were the main form of wealth in the South, at an estimated worth of 3 billion dollars. Some southerners feared that if slavery were to end they would lose the money they had invested on slaves.
-Furthermore many people in the South believed that slavery made all whites of equal status and gave whites liberty, many southerners feared that if slavery ended whites would lose their rights and liberty.
-Some southerners wanted slavery to continue and expand since it would increase their chances of getting slaves.
How these differing opinions on slavery affected the Civil War
Alexander Hamilton Stephens
-The North’s desire to end slavery and the South’s desire to keep it eventually helped lead to the Civil War.
-This theory is supported by many speeches and written sources during the Civil War, and the period leading up to it. For example according to president Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, "One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern half part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it." (Lincoln, 1)
-Also from the Confederate point of view:
"The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the Negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution." (Stephens, 4)
"A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He...has declared that 'Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,' and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction...We, therefore, the People of South Carolina...have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North America, is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as a separate and independent State." (May & Faunt, 79-81)
-This theory is supported by many speeches and written sources during the Civil War, and the period leading up to it. For example according to president Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, "One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern half part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it." (Lincoln, 1)
-Also from the Confederate point of view:
"The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the Negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution." (Stephens, 4)
"A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He...has declared that 'Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,' and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction...We, therefore, the People of South Carolina...have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North America, is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as a separate and independent State." (May & Faunt, 79-81)