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Uncle Toms Cabin Thesis

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From 1845-1861, Northerners greatest worries regarding the growth of “slave power” were due in part to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Election of 1852 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In February of 1848, both the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Norton, 347). This treaty gave the United States California, New Mexico and present day Nevada, Utah, Arizona, parts of Colorado, and Wyoming (Norton, 347). The acquisition of such a vast amount of land increased Northern fear of slavery expansion. The northerners believed that President Polk had started the war with Mexico for the sole purpose of acquiring vast, new slave territory. The northerners were fearful of slave expansion because they believed that Slave labor …show more content…

Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote the controversial novel called “Uncle Toms Cabin”, which depicted the humanity and suffering of the slaves (Norton, 352). The story of a mother dashing to freedom with a child across the frozen Ohio River aroused sympathy from millions of northerners (Norton, 352). The novel went on to sell over 1 million copies by mid-1853, which worried southerners who believed it could threaten their rights. The book caused widespread anger from the northerners towards the southerners, which led to southerners to fear that nearby areas could outlaw slavery and become bases for abolitionism that would then spread into their slave states and abolish slavery. On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a small mixed race group to attack the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in the hopes of triggering a slave rebellion (Norton, 361). Southerners were outraged to learn that prominent northern abolitionists had financially backed John Brown. This increased southern fear that the northern abolitionists could attempt greater revolutionary acts in an attempt to start a slave rebellion. The southerners feared Abraham Lincoln being elected in 1860 due in part to the Republican Party’s opposition to slavery extension

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In South, torn between the economic benefits of slavery and the moral and constitutional issues raised, and white Southerners grew more and more defensive. They argued that black people were incapable of caring for themselves. They said that slavery was a benevolent institution that kept them fed, clothed, and occupied. Most Northerners did not doubt that black people being inferior to whites, but they did doubt the benevolence of slavery. The Civil War changed the future of the United States.

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If a southerner wants to get a slave all they have to is get a certificate from a southern judge saying that it is his or her slave. The northerners were outraged because slavery was outlawed in the north so they didn't want to be a part of it. Many of the northerners were abolitionists. An abolitionist is

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Southerners believed that the U.S. was made for and by the white race, and that the Africans had no part of their establishment. They believed that slaves were justified by the “..experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the almighty creator.” (Document B.) They did not want to give up their businesses or their beliefs too soon therefore, they

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“Lincoln identified the westward expansion of slavery as the key issue” (video). The issue brings in the question of the delicate balance of power in the Congress. “Just as northerners believed westward expansion essential to their economic well-being, southern leaders became convinced that slavery must expand or die” writes Eric Foner (483). Without slavery expanding with the addition of new states, slave states would permanently assume a minority position of representation within government. The interests of Southern pro-slavery states would not be secure in a Union subjugated by non-slaveholding states.

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Although not everyone agreed in declaring war, President Polk reassured Congress that he was not fighting the war to expand slavery but instead used the concept of manifest destiny to expand towards the west in hopes of instilling unity upon the nation. After a series of numerous battles that took place between March 1846 and April 1848 the end of the war lead to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty recognized that most if not all parts of present-day California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and the border of Texas was to be under the authority of the United States. The acquisition of such a large amount of land added to the unresolved issue of slavery. The South was all for adding another slave state to U.S. as this was going to work in their

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In the North slavery wasn't practiced. The economy of the North was mainly dependent on industry. The North depended on the South for

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Many slave owners feared that slaves were plotting to revolt against them. They were trying to pass an act to remove the freed slaves away from the slave states. They believed that the freed slaves were trying to help free those who were in bondage, which most were doing even though it could cost them their freedom (Virtual freedom pg.15). The white southerners also felt that the slaves who look at those who were freed and try to escape or even ask to be

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Northerners did not want slavery to be abolished because they feared that African Americans were move to north and take their jobs. However, Northerners did not want slavery to extend into the new western territories. Some Northerners either hated slavery such as the “free soilers,” which included John Brown, or were racist and did not want African Americas to populate the western territories, which were white man’s land. The Northerners did not want slavery to expand, but they were content keeping it in the South.

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Because of the south's differing climate compared to the north, cash crops such as tobacco and cotton were able to be grown and harvested in this region. As the cotton economy expanded so did the number of plantations and farms that produced this crop, so the dependence of slavery grew as well since slaves were the main labor force of the south, especially on larger plantations. The North, being much more concentrated on industrialization than an agrarian lifestyle was unable to grow these crops due to their climate, depended less on slaves, their innovated cities and businesses, and the increased education of their people does not directly become affected by the discontinuation of slavery. The South felt that if slavery was abolished this would result in economic recession and thus their defensiveness to maintain enslavement enhanced. Northerners were afraid that if the south continued to feel pressured to get rid of slavery and isolated from the rest of the United States then they would more likely succumb to

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Slavery was a manner in which the which population were supervised and controlled; kept illiterate and unskilled as education meant that the black population could identify themselves as more than just cheap labour. White southerners were afraid that the black population would disrupt their social status and economy as the black population would be able to compete with poor whites for jobs and be on an equal base with them. The abolishment of slavery aroused a sense of fear amongst the white southerners as they were scared the black slaves would massacre their families, insurrection as seen in Richmond in the 1800 and eventually start a war . Another reason for the secession was not only motivated the belief that blacks wear inferior to the white race, the economy of the Deep South was also a huge

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This event on March 20, 1852 a book called, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was first published this was a carefully written anti-slavery argument. Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and novelist who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, one of the most influential books in American history. Life was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made aiding or assisting runaway slaves a crime in free states. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the novel becuase she wanted to show how the novel helped change the direction of Americans. The Civil War was a mixture of causes including regional conflicts between North and South, economic forces, and human concerns for the welfare of enslaved people.

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In the Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there are many differences between women and men. If ask me about the expression of men, I would said most of them do not like do the farming work and they might want to go away. They think they also have rights or they should be equal with their master. However, I saw Tom is a special person. He is kind and moral.

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Alex Walker Mrs.Saluan 3/16/16 5th-6th Uncle Tom’s Cabin Book Talk Uncle Tom’s Cabin is written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The settings of the book are Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio and Canada. The book begins on a farm in Kentucky, with two white men sitting discussing a cruel sale of human life.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin was, and still is today, an important well-known novel. The nineteenth-century novel contains the lives, experiences, and views of the characters. It tells the harsh and cruel living conditions of slaves. The novel tells the brutality of slaves and changed the way many people viewed slavery. The author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, inspired the many people.

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North American Slave narrative was perfected in the last 30 years of legal slavery. Three of the fundamental works that influenced this narrative were Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave, Harriet Jacobs’s 1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and even Emily Dickenson was influenced in some of her works by the Fugitive Slave Laws, her works such as, The genre of North American Slave narrative achieves its most stirring interpretations with Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave and Harriet Jacobs’s 1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. These works embody the strain between the paradoxical

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