Civil War Dbq Essay

Before the American Civil War, we struggled with the concept of slavery based on our economic and moral differences. People who lived in the North believed that slavery should be abolished since they did not grow crops that needed an abundance of slaves. Moreover, they thought that slaves should be treated like all human beings based on the constitution. On the other side, Americans who lived in the South thought slavery should not be abolished as their crops demanded twice as much work than the ones in the North; therefore, they needed much more workers working in their field and that’s where slaves came into view. They also thought that Africans were inferior because of their skin color and origin. These different points of view caused America

Auctions occurred in the South where slave owners would come and buy a slave for a certain amount of money. This was a huge profit for the slave owners in the South because each slave contributed an enormous amount of with little cost. “… there were sold 429 men, women and children. The total amount of the sale foots up $303,850.”(Document I). According to this data, the cost of each slave would be 708.28 dollars. Slaves weren’t paid to work in the fields, so the only time a white man would have to spend on a slave is in the auctions. Therefore, this was fairly cheap for slaveowners based on the fact that a slave would devote almost their whole life to harvesting their crops. In addition, an increase in the number of slaves caused a raise in the cotton production of the slave owner. Between 1840 and 1850, cotton production increased from 1,348,000 bales to 2,136,000 bales of cotton and slave numbers increased from 2,875,000 to 3,650,000 (Document A). Slave owners depended on slaves for their economic status. For example, the South relied on cotton because it was essential for trading with countries in Europe like Britain. Without slaves, the South could have ever made such a development in their cotton production. As a result, slaves were crucial to the prosperity of the

They believed that slaves were better off with slave owners than in Africa. Moreover, many people in the South deemed that the slaves were saved from misery and starvation when they were forced into America. John C. Calhoun, the vice president of America, stated that it was a “positive good” that the Africans were slaves. “... look at the sick, and the old and infirm slave, on one hand, in the midst of his family and friends, under the kind superintending care of his master and mistress, and compare it with the forlorn and wretched condition of the pauper in the poorhouse…”(Document J). Calhoun states that slaves are well taken care of in illness and health, rather than in the North, where no one cares about the poor whites starving in the street with nowhere to go. On the other hand, the North had contrasting viewpoints about the moral aspect of slavery. They believed that people of all color should be treated equally and with the same respect. William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist and journalist, wrote an anti-slavery newspaper called The Liberator. He advocated for the emancipation of all slaves, but did not think they could or would want to assimilate into the American society. Garrison’s motive for his newspaper was, “Let Southern oppressors tremble - let their secret abettors tremble - let their Northern apologists tremble - let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble.”(Document G).