US History

US History

2005

On the threshold of the Civil War , economic development caused emergence of new social , cultural , ideological views , which resulted in the deep division within the United States . These new trends prompted to reforms concerning abolition , women ' rights , and power of states in the context of the federation (i .e . states ' rights

By the year of 1860 , the population of the Southern states had reached four million , and above one-third of that number were slaves (1 . Most southerners lived on agriculture , namely due to cotton , rice , and sugar

export . Growing these crops was a hard and backbreaking work , thus the southern society tried to justify institution of slavery . In contrast to the slave system of the South the North popularized the concept of free labor ' connected with the idea that anyone has an individual potential to climb high on the ladder of success owing to work and dedication (2 :51 . Furthermore , most Northerners recognized the fact of slave exploitation by the South and considered it to be a nation-wide sin but not to interfere with . However , they favored gradual emancipation and claimed , citing William Lloyd Garrison "to secure to the colored population of the United States all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men and as Americans (3

On the other hand , abolitionists chose an extreme way of reforming the society and obtaining freedom for the enslaved , which was accompanied with propaganda , attacks on more moderate antislavery organizations and even murders (in 1837 , a mob killed Elijah Lovejoy , the editor of an abolitionist news in Alton , Illinois (4 . Thus , the good idea of giving freedom to slaves was , to my mind , spoilt by utter ways of its realization

In the Congress pro-slavery ideas of the South were represented by the Democratic Party . And the first its opposition party became known as the Know-Nothing Party because its members refused to identify themselves and their meetings were secret . They supported the popular sovereignty in other words , the idea that people within each territory should decide by referendum whether or not to permit slavery (5 . Yet , the party was not unanimous and had not enough power to become an equal rival Nevertheless , I hold the opinion that it had positive effect as it lay in the basis of the Republican Party , the representative of which Abraham Lincoln won the elections

Still , in spite of the fact that Lincoln was against the Dred Scott decision according to which slavery had to be absolutely protected in all territories , he did not aim to abolish slavery . Later Lincoln claimed , I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races ' but still maintained notwithstanding all this , there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence (6

To cut the long story short , situation of the antebellum period could be viewed as disputable and controversial . Still , it helps us to...