Slavery Dbq Essay

During the 19th century most political controversies focused on the issue of slavery, many believed this issue was wicked and cruel and strongly disagreed with the idea of slavery, being active and acceptable. Owning the fact that many disagreed with slavery, the Republican Party announced a speech- all territories of the United States were said to be free and they were entitled to deny anyone who gives any legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States (Document A). Many important figures in the Republican Party did not agree with nor supported anyone or anything that advocated for slavery. Slavery meant men, women, and even innocent children had to be treated unfairly and taken advantage of. All of this controversy

Seeing that this was a major issue, there were many enforced laws that were in favor with the African-Americans and tried to protect them by giving them the ability to no longer be slaves and be a free human. Although these laws symbolized protection, they instead caused fear. Many of these “laws” were covers that provided unjust treatment towards the African-Americans. A someone stood up for this law, Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed the Fugitive Slave Law that was passed by Congress on September 18, 1850 on May 3 1851. This law was a statute that enacted the crime of kidnapping African-Americans. It was a crime on one footing with arson and murder. An African-American's right to liberty is inalienable as his right to life (Document B). The passing of this law was useless, the African-American slaves were taken captive and were still constantly treated awful. The whole point of the laws were to protect the African-American, but instead they treated them like animals and dehumanized them over and over for years to come. Still till this day, 2017, there is still racism going on. There has been many disturbing events that have occurred that have proven there has been no change from the 19th century to the modern day. Slavery still exists today and it has been an issue that still has not been fully dealt

In Document C, William Lloyd Garrison discusses how the words “slavery” and “slaves” are not found in the Constitution. The Constitution is not in favor of slavery and does not tolerate slavery being said or used. This is because the Constitution is built on liberty and freedom. In addition, slaves are being trafficked as merchandise and goods rather than humans (Document C) which goes against liberty and freedom in the constitution. African-American were still considered slaves and were treated like mechanized objects instead of humans beings. This here prevented them from their humans rights. These were rights every single individual had and they were not to be take away. But as one can see, there were many ways these human rights were quickly taken away from individuals who could not stand up for themselves, because if they did, life would have been taken away from