Lead in to war

I am a better reader than a writer. I don’t think I can finish the essay I wanted to write on slavery. But I will tell you the theme and you can read some of the material below to see if you agree.

Slavery is bad. The founders of the country realized this and struggled with it. But something so pervasive in one region is hard to get rid of. Slavery was part of the debate in Constitutional convention. Several compromises were added. The goal was to limit the power of slave states and to contain the practice. They did not successfully solve the problem but instead decided it was best to have a country and get rid of slavery later rather than have slavery and no country. It was debated from day one but not fixed. They only succeeded in delaying the fight for generations.

As soon as was allowed by the new Constitution the Atlantic slave trade was stopped in 1808. There was a self-sustaining population of slaves, however. Slavery was abolished in the northern states and in the northwest territories. Problems were created as vast new territories were added to the US possessions. Each required a new compromise as to how slave issue was to be handled. Louisiana Purchase, Texas and California, later New Mexico and Utah Territories. As the population grew and spread new states were added to the union. Balance was maintained with various agreements so that national abolition laws could not be forced on states that allowed slaves. Missouri Compromise of 1820 seemed a good attempt at this. A north/south line was established but needed to be extended because of western expansion. It seems talking and compromise worked until about 1854 when Stephen Douglas tried to get the planed railroad connected from California to Chicago instead of St. Louis. He also wanted to be President. It was a bad idea with too much given up to slave owners. Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed Compromise of 1820 and created confusion as to future of slavery. Containment was destroyed and talks broke down. In theory, all open territories could have slaves.

Dred Scott case was finally decided in 1857 and was another blow to peace because the court gave opinion that not only was a slave not free just because owner had resided in a free state for years. Plus they added a few things. They wrote that slaves were not citizens and descendants of slaves could never be citizens. As non-citizens they had no right to bring suits to court. They declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. (Second time that ever happened, I read.) They basically said that all laws restricting slavery were not allowed. Slavery should be allowed everywhere. This got people upset of course. This is similar to the so called right to privacy. They just made it up.

Lincoln countered Douglas in his 1854 speech. Good speech, I will include a link below. Basically the fighting didn’t stop after 1854 and led right into the War Between the States. Bleeding Kansas, attack on Sumner in the Senate etc. With all this I'm not sure why the first shot is considered to be fired at Fort Sumpter in 1861. But after reading his speeches I can see why the slave states were so opposed to a Lincoln presidency.



These are some of the better websites I read. Not all are that great but you should read Lincoln’s speech about Kansas.

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=51

In no particular order
Bleeding Kansas http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/Kansas/
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_slav.html
Rise of republican party http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/biography6text.html
Dred Scott http://www.gdg.org/Research/Causes/causes5.html
dissenting opinions http://www.hrcr.org/docs/US_Constitution/dscott4.html
impact of Dred Scott http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/scott/impact.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2933t.html african in america
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2933.html dred scott
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/civil_war/compromise_of_1850.htm
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/civil_war/kansasnebraska_act.htm
http://mattstodayinhistory.blogspot.com/
http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/slavery.html
http://blackhistory.harpweek.com/2Slavery/SlaveryLevelOne.htm
http://members.aol.com/digasa/dubois.htm war to preserve slavery