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Danielle Taylor
Professor Bethel
HIST 310
30 April 2014
A Slave Union Divided
Slavery was the key component to the successful development of the American colonies
because it was the back bone to establishing plantations in a time where there was little labor to
be found. The demand for free labor created an economy that was reliant on African Slaves.
However, now a free nation, the United States of America was faced with their own constitution
that stated that it was a land of the free. How could a nation claiming to be free, also justify the
use of enslaving other human beings? This issue began to divide the states, as they stood against
each other, North Free States and Southern Slave States. The documents Satirizing Free Blacks
(1829), Edmund Ruffin Defends Slavery, The Great Prize Fight (1844), and First Inaugural
Address (1861) demonstrate the growing debate over slavery in America and how this divide in
the nation lead to the Civil War.
The North had become known as a safe settlement land for free slaves, but soon the
North would seek to end slavery throughout the Nation. The Northern Christians condemned the
institution of slavery as they declared that every person, including African Americans, had their
right to their God given status as free moral agents (Henretta 337). This movement to stop the
injustices against the slaves in the South, would soon become an overwhelming opinion of the
Northern States. The Christians used reports and testimonies to bring to light the actual
conditions slaves were subject to in order to rally support for the abolishment movement
(Henretta 338). These abolishment societies used multiple tactics to increase the amount of
Northern support to end slavery in the south through appealing first to Christians, aiding fugitive

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slaves, and finally political campaigning. These efforts were able to produce a signed petition
with 500,000 signatures to abolish slavery in Columbia, end slave trade, and stop the admission
of any more slave states to the Union (Henretta 340). However, just because the North was
against the institution of slavery, did not mean they had removed their racist mentalities as shown
in Satirizing Free Blacks. This document demonstrates free blacks that have attained freedom,
but now are reaching for too much equality by joining the middle class (Yazawa 272). This
document proves that even in the free state of Philadelphia that had a growing African American
middle class, the hatred to blacks was still justified even though they supported the abolishment
of slavery in the South.
The Southern States had become extremely reliable on their slave based economy, it was
the means of their existence. When the south began to expand into the Southwestern States they
once again turned to the free labor of African Americans to establish the new settlements. The
demand for slaves began to increase dramatically due to the congress outlawing Atlantic Slave
Trade, but this did not stop the South from attaining more slaves. Slaves were now beginning to
be imported illegally through Spain and others were sold south from the Chesapeake region
where the population of African Americans was increasing naturally (Henretta 353). The South
was becoming a separate nation as it became one of the most prosperous economies in the world,
due to its back bone of slavery (Henretta 369). However, their success came at the price of
denying the African Americans their basic human rights, or God given moral rights as the
northern Christians explained. The South began to defend themselves by justifying the benefits
of using slave labor. In the document Edmund Ruffin Defends Slavery (1853), Ruffin contrasts
the use of free labor and slave labor to demonstrate the benefits slavery had in the south by
claiming that slave labor is cheaper than free labor, making it the smarter business route to take.

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His philosophy that slave labor was better than the labor the North was insisting they turn to is
best represented when he states, it is manifest that slave labor, with its admitted defect in this
respect, will be cheapest and most profitable to the employer, and to the whole community, and
will yield more towards the general increase of production and public wealth; (Yazawa 296).
The South was convinced that their slave economy was best for society, and they were hell bent
on not only keeping it that way, but also expanding this notion into the economies of new
emerging states in America.
America was determined to embark on their Manifest Destiny to expand their nation from
coast to coast. Americans looked to add the new lands, such as Oregon and California, to the
borders of the United States (Henretta 385,). The Great Prize Fight, demonstrates the view of the
American right to absorb this land by depicting the natural born eggs of California and Texas
being fought over by a Spaniard and Canadian, but the ghost of Washington saying, Go it, my
Boy, you will beat them all (Yazawa 312)! This cartoon shows that not only did the Americans
think they could beat the competing nations for the land, but also it was naturally theirs to begin
with. However, the question remained what would be the face of this new land? Would the new
states represent the hierarchical racial order of the slaveholding south, or the more democratic
reform-minded society of the North and Midwest (Henretta 385)? This pressing question began
to tear the nation into two opposing sides as they fought to implement their style of economy on
the new states. However, this constant battle to abolish or maintain slavery, would soon become
the center of attention after the election of President Lincoln, but even Lincoln could not stop the
onset of the Civil War (Henretta 413).
In the months that followed the election of Abraham Lincoln, the South began to secede
from the Union as they viewed Lincoln as an enemy in charge of their government. At first

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Lincoln stepped lightly over the topic of slavery as he desperately tried to keep the Union
together. In First Inaugural Address (1861), Lincoln attempted to keep the Union together, as he
promised to safe guard the slave states that existed already, but he would also stop any more
slave states from entering the Union (Henretta 419). With compromises on the table, Lincoln
made it clear that any state leaving the Union was unacceptable by stating in the First Inaugural
Address (1861), It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mer motion, can
lawfully get out of the Unionand that acts of violence, within any State or States, against the
authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to
circumstances..(Yazawa 345). However, the South responded to Lincolns call to rejoin or face
war, with the attack on Fort Sumter that signified the first open cannon shot by what was now
referred to as the Confederate States (Henretta 420). In the years that followed, the North and
south would remain divided unable to compromise on their disagreement over slavery.
The Civil War carried on to the bitter end as the two regions failed to come to a
compromise that would put an end to the fighting. The North was set on abolishing the
institution of slavery, and refused to let the South exit the Union. The South on the other hand,
view the abolishment of slavery as unconstitutional and refused to surrender in fear of facing a
time where they were not allowed to own their slaves. The two regions also feared what the new
frontier would look like, slaves or no slaves? These disagreements caused a once United Union
to divide on the topic of slavery, unable to reach a compromise that would prevent the killing of
their own brothers. The Civil War claimed more lives than any known war of its time, as fields of
men lay dead in the wake of a cause that could not be resolved.

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