The Elephant of America: Slavery in the 19th Century

Slavery in the United States was a large problem for many. In the North, abolitionists were strongly against slavery, and more importantly, the spread of it. Pro slavery advocates in the south felt strongly about slavery as well, and the spread of it. To look at the sharp divide of views on slavery in America, and how these views affected each other, we made a timeline of the events pertaining to slavery that led up to the civil war.We split the timeline up based on if something was a proslavery event or anti slavery. In looking at these events, we found the answer to the essential question for this lesson, "How do we know the debate over slavery was the "elephant in the room" for American politics in the early 19th century?" Meaning, how do the events that took place show what a big and controversial issue slavery was in America politics, and how it was being ignored. The timeline and explanation for each event that my group created is below.

The first event that we looked at was the Compromise of 1850. To understand the issues discussed in this compromise, it is necessary to understand what happened 30 years before. Maine wanted to become a free state, but this would make the ratio of slave and free states uneven. To resolve this issue, Missouri became a slave state in the Missouri compromise. This was done so that that the free and slave states would have equal votes in senate. In 1850, California wanted to join the union as a free state, once again disrupting the ratio of free and slave states. In the compromise of 1850, proposed by Henry Clay, this, as well as other issues were resolved. The first issue was the United States has won territory from Mexico and had not been resolved as free or slave territory. The solution for this was wait and allow the inhabitants of the new territory to decide if they wanted to be a slave or free state. Then next issue was if California would be allowed to be a free state. The decision allowed this, but in turn created the fugitive slave act, which required anyone who say a runaway slave to turn them in. The next issue was the state of Texas believed that had more territory than they truly did. The solution forced Texas to give the territories back, but in return received 10 million dollars. Lastly, the nations capital, Washington D.C allowed slavery and had a very large slave market. The solution to this was to abolish the slave trade, but allow slavery in D.C.

The borders of California, joined as a free state in the compromise of 1850

In 1854, the Kansas Nebraska Act was passed, with benefits to both the north and the south. The act violated the Missouri compromise because it allows for the possibility of slavery extending north of the line that was previously agreed on. This was a good thing for pro slavery advocates, because it meant that they could expand slavery northward, furthering the amount of slavery, making it harder to abolish. The act also had benefits for the north, since the lands position on slavery would be decided by its people, the transcontinental railroad would make it easier for anti slavery advocates to move there. With the possibility of slavery still up in the air, and in the hands of the settlers, was inevitable that settlers with differing views would have a lot of tension. In 1856, Bleeding Kansas showed just how far people would go for their cause. On May 21st, a group of pro slavery advocates burned down building in Lawrence, Kansas, a primarily abolitionist town. On May 24th, an abolitionist names John Brown massacred 5 proslavery settlers in the Pottawatomie Massacre. Another violent instance was when Charles Sumener, a senator for Massachussetts gave a speech titled "The Crime against Kansas" advocating against slavery and against all of the violence happening in Kansas. He blamed the violence on senator Andrew Burke, saying that he knew that this violence would occur when he made his decisions on Kansas. Burkes nephew, angered by the speech, approached Sumner and beat him with a cane. Sumner never returned to full health after this attack.

A comic about "Bleeding Kansas" and the issues that is created

The morality of slavery and black lives in general was ignored at all costs, something that can be seen from the Dred Scott Decision. Dred Scott was a slave who filed a suit against his owner, saying that he should be free. The reasoning behind the suit was that he had lived with his owner in a state where slavery was illegal. The court ruled against Scott, and in response to this denied slaves the rights to sue in a court because they were not citizens. Even worse, people who had been slaved no longer could gain their freedom by living in a free state, and the Missouri compromise was ruled unconstitutional.

As time went on in the 19th century, slavery became a more popular topic, and was discussed more. The "elephant in the room" stopped being a huge issue that was always ignored and never discussed, and became something that impossible to ignore, and therefore necessary to discuss. An example of these discussions was the Lincoln- Douglas debates in 1858. It was a series of seven debates that discussed at length the issue of slavery in the United States. As the united states expanded, slavery was something that had to be discussed. An issue with drastically different views, it was of course easier to ignore the problem. Finally during the 1850s slavery became a slightly more popular topic, and although it was an impossible task to find a solution that would please all the citizens of the united states, it was something that was being discussed.




Sourcing:
Picture of California: http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/graphics/compromiseof1850map.jpg

Bleeding Kansas Comic: http://mtviewmirror.com/bleeding-kansas/#prettyPhoto