Opposition To Slavery Dbq Essay

The Nation grew increasingly divided through the mid-1800’s over the issue of slavery, to the extent that it bled into other issues, primarily as a tensioned pretense to admis-sion of new states to the Union. Presidents prior to Polk either passively or actively re-sisted the annexation of new territories or promoting statehood, recognizing the issue of slavery and probable effects of spreading or denying slavery. The North’s ideological opposition to slavery was equally as legitimate as the South’s reasoning, but with slave labor accounting for up to 50 percent of the population in the South, there was also ac-ceptance on economical basis. Vast new lands became American territory throughout this period, while other disputed lands had boundaries

They al-so believed that demand for abolition of slavery was unconstitutional, upheld by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision, which upheld slaves as property, protected from confiscation by the 5th amendment. They also asserted that cohabitation of slav-ery and freedom was possible due to its very existence, and considered themselves to be aiding in the protection of an inferior race, not physically capable of surviving in American societies like the North. The South, however, did little to “aid” in the integra-tion or preparation for blacks to assimilate. Most planation owners forbid slaves from learning to read or write. The South also saw justification in slavery in how poorly freed African Americans, along with the rest of the immigrant population, were treated in hor-rid factory conditions and poverty and disease stricken cities of the

With both their markets and suppliers gone, the CSA needed to garner foreign support for supplying the way effort. It was assumed that they would be able to rely on Great Britain, who had up to this point been sympathetic to the Southern cause. Great Britain also relied heavily on cotton imported from the South, and appreciated the structured, stable society of the aristocratic south. The blockade would prove effective and Britain pulled support, able to sustain during the war’s interim on cotton imported from Egypt and