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Alessandra Bassani

Mr. Jones

AP US History

15 December 2017

Differing Views of the North and South Over Slavery

Slavery was the most pressing issue during 1830-1860, causing the North and the South

to split over its expansion into the Western territories. Many Southerners believed this institution

was a positive good, and were influenced by racism to encourage its expansion. Although this

was a common sentiment, the majority of the anti-slavery societies were found in South, causing

conflicting beliefs within the meridional United States. However, the preponderant sentiment in

the North was to stop the expansion of slavery, since they realized the degrading effect this

institution had on families and individuals. Nonetheless, some Northerners felt the issue of

slavery was already settled by the three-fifths compromise and the Constitution, and there was no

reason to revisit it. Due to the opposing views on slavery, many Southerners portrayed the slaves

as necessary elements in society and better off than people living in the North, while many

Northerners protested against the institution itself, and the unfair conditions slaves faced.

With the expanding cotton kingdom, many Southerners saw slavery as a necessity, as the

South was producing half of the world’s supply of cotton. The cotton gin invented by Eli

Whitney in 1793, resulted in the dramatic increase in the demand for slaves. In the picture

“Harvesting Cotton”, it romanticizes slavery by showing a positive image of slaves, as they are

working on a plantation in Mississippi at ease and in harmony (Doc. 5). The slaves were of both

sexes, and they were forced to work long hours, due to the large plantation agriculture that the

South was based upon. Additionally, in the Memoir on Slavery written in 1837 by William
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Harper, it describes how slaves were essential on cotton plantations. Without slaves, “the

cultivation of the great staple crops cannot be carried on in any proportion of our country” and

this is necessary for the economy (Doc. 2). Slaves were the main labor source in the South and

four million of them lived there. If slavery was banned, there would be a labor shortage. The

South would then lose seats in the House of Representatives, since the Three-Fifths Compromise

allowed part of the slave population to count towards the number of seats each state got. In

addition, the South even believed that their slaves were treated better than industrialists and

factory workers in the North. This was the main idea behind the book Cannibals All! by George

Fitzhugh, and it is the central message in the passage that Governor George McDuffie sent to the

South Carolina legislature in 1835. He illustrated how “slaves are greatly superior to those of of

the English [factory] operatives” (Doc. 1). This is due to the fact that they are not “crowded

together in those loathsome receptacles of starving humanity, the public poorhouses” (Doc. 1).

Instead, the slaves enjoyed a better quality of life since their masters took care of them when they

were old. Governor McDuffie delivered this the same year that the post office was burned in

Charleston, South Carolina, which occurred to stop the spread of abolitionist material. This

represents the predominant Southern attitude towards slavery.

Many in the North regarded slavery as an evil, and did not want it to expand westward.

However, the majority of Northerners were not abolitionists. In The American Anti-Slavery

Almanac for 1838, it shows a black woman being restricted by an official while her free papers

are being torn (Doc. 3). This was meant to arouse anti-slavery sentiment by illustrating the lack

of rights that African Americans had at this time. Even if they were free, they were in constant

danger of being captured and becoming a slave again, particularly in the wake of the Fugitive

Slave Act of 1850. In addition, in the “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America,”
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by Henry Highland Garnet, an African-American abolitionist, he describes the immorality of

slavery at the National Negro Convention in Buffalo, New York in 1843. He mentiones how a lot

of “misery is comprehended in that single word”, and “he who brings his fellow down so low”

by making them a slave “commits the highest crime against God and man” (Doc. 4). Being a

former slave, Garnet wanted fellow abolitionists to understand the struggles and degradation

slaves faced. Also, by framing slavery as totally evil, Garnet was expressing how the institution

forced slaves to comply with the harsh way of life, although it went against God. Harriet Beecher

Stowe, an abolitionist, published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, and this book describes the torture

slaves faced from the splitting of families. This helped to propagate abolitionist sentiment, and

make a war inevitable. Additionally, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, gave a speech in Peoria,

Illinois in October 1854, which described how slavery went against the symbolism of the

American government. This is because “‘the one retrograde institution in America is

undermining the principles of progress and fatally violating the noblest political system ever

saw” (Doc. 6). The United States was supposed to represent freedom, however people were

being subject to slavery and losing their liberties. Consequently, Republicans opposed the idea of

popular sovereignty that Louis Cass, the 1848 Democratic candidate, and Stephen Douglas, a

representative from Illinois, promoted. This is due to the fact that there was a chance slavery

could spread westward, since the people were given the power to decide the issue of slavery in

their state. In increasing numbers, Northerners wanted to stop the spread of slavery due to the

negative effect it imposed on the less fortunate.

The North and the South had different views on slavery due to their geological location

and use for slavery. Although debated, the South needed slaves for cotton plantations, causing

many to support its expansion westward. Many Northerners saw the institution as an evil that
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was destroying mankind, and protested for the creation of more free states. However, most of the

anti-slavery societies were located in the South, and some Northerners still did not believe

slavery was an issue they needed to invest in. These different views would erupt into Civil War,

since the sectional divide would become too strong for the safety of the United States.