Slavery history and societal impact

¶ … Role did Slavery play in starting the Civil War?

For many years leading up to the start of the Civil War there was increasing tension between the United States federal government and Southern states over a state's right to govern themselves. Although there were several issues between the two sides, it was slavery that became the deciding one that eventually resulted in the breakout of war between the two sides.

The issue was whether slavery should be legal west of the Mississippi River, as the country expanded at a rapid rate into the new states and territories rich in natural resources. During the late 1700's and early 1800's Congress passed laws restricting the growth of slavery in these regions (Burnan, p.11), which angered the Southern states. Many in the Northern states wanted slavery to be kept out of all the new states and territories, or the decision to make slavery legal left up to the new settlers moving into these regions. The Northern position was based on the fact that most of the settlers moving into these regions were from Northern states where slavery had been abolished. In addition, Northern states believed slavery prevented non-slaves from obtaining jobs. The Southern states wanted slavery to be legal in the new states and territories because their economic livelihood was heavily dependent on the use of slaves as labor, and wanted to expand their economic system into the western regions.

An example of this legislative battle between Northern and Southern states was the attempted passage of the Tallmadge Amendment, which would have prevented the importation of any new slaves into Missouri and granted freedom to any slaves reaching the age of 25 (Cartmell, p. 29). Under the Tallmadge Amendment slavery would have completely ended within a generation in Missouri. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill, but the U.S. Senate rejected it. Under a compromise bill, called the Missouri Compromise, Missouri was allowed to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine entered as a free state. During the period from 1815 to 1850 a string of compromises between the two sides kept the peace.

In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act nullified the Missouri Compromise and several informal skirmishes between pro-slavery forces and abolitionists occurred that signaled a rise in tensions (Cartmell, p. 31). The Northern and Southern factions within the Democratic Party split over this and other issues, and each side entered a candidate into the 1860 presidential campaign. The Republican Candidate Abraham Lincoln won as a result, on a platform of compromise, but before the new President could give his inaugural address containing an appeal to "…the better angels of our nature…" (Stokesbury, p. 22), South Carolina and six other states had formally seceded from the Union and Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor was under a state of siege (Cartmell).