Dbq Slavery Essay

Slavery in the United States was the main form of labor in the late 1700’s. While being thought of as a normal way of life, many whites took in colored people as slaves for field work, house work, and much more. Their mistreatment and injustices began to raise red flags in the ethics of the society. From 1776 to 1852, opposition to slavery was quickly spreading as many forces caused the prolonged debate of slavery to come into question. The increase in the black population, the facts and rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence, and the harsh mistreatment of slaves were all factors in the continuous growth of the idea of abolition until eventual reconstruction after the Civil War in 1867. The slaves at this time fought hard for the

Reasons such as high reproduction rates and migration caused many northern cities to see an increase in the number of blacks. Previous attempts of controlling the population includes the ⅗ Compromise, which allowed blacks to only count as ⅗ of a person while voting. This time, however, African Americans were so dominant in their beliefs against slavery that the new overwhelming population began to impact legislation. The north started emancipation first in 1777 (Document A). Blacks escaping slavery flooded to the north through means such as the Underground Railroad. Though many whites believed that they could not live with blacks (Document D), the opposition to slavery still grew as more and more blacks populated the cities (Document C). Their values and impacts began to outnumber that of the white population and this caused the opposition of slavery to

In this document was a plethora of acknowledgements towards what society should be for its citizens. In the European enlightenment, John Locke professed his ideas of equality and how a government should provide this equality. In the Declaration of Independence, John Locke’s ideas are plain and simple when the document states that everyone should have “life, liberty, and,” not in John Locke’s particular choice of words, “property.” This idea of all men being born free and equal is an apparent intent of our forefathers, but this idea contradicts everything to do with slavery (Document B). As people began to notice the inconsistency, opposition to slavery grew and took action. This sparked “Anti-Slavery Societies” in various cities and towns (Document E), as professed by William Lloyd Garrison, who was an influential writer that had the power to impact the thinking of others. This also caused the slaves at the time to work for freedom and equality themselves. In Document G, Frederick Douglass tells of his account of working for his freedom. He tells the desire of equality that motivated him to encourage the abolition of slavery. The concept of equality presented in the Declaration of Independence impacted people from all over and from a variety of background and caused them to push for it to live up to its