From the beginning of its creation, America has been a divided country. Multiple factors played into the birth of the Civil War due to the many differences that further separated the two sides, making it unavoidable. Whether the South’s secession from the union was legal and justifiable is still a debatable topic, but many agree that the answer to both is no. A large cause of this divide was the contradictory beliefs and inability to find common ground between the North and the South regarding slavery. The resulting tension would later be fueled by other elements like differences in development and government involvement.
When the founding fathers were drafting the Constitution, they already came across an issue that would later greatly divide …show more content…
The founders also knew that the practice was a lucrative one and feared that southern states that relied on it would refuse to be part of the union should they condemn it. Viewing slavery as unavoidable to keep the country united, he tried to make compromises that would appease both the North and South. One example of this is the three-fifth compromise. Despite seeing black people as property rather than people, southerners still wanted them to count as citizens in the populations of states to gain more political power and be able to compete against the more densely populated North. The colonists were unsure of how to include enslaved black people as citizens when it came to voting, so they settled on counting each slave as three-fifths of a person. However, this would be another thing that adds to the conflict between the two sides because of how it gave more power to the South. Upsetting Northerners because it gave the former more say when it …show more content…
This was because of how profitable cotton was and the need for more slaves due to the expansion of plantations requiring more labor. This led to Southerners becoming more defensive of slavery and making more justification for it. One person, George Fitzhugh, sums up one of the most common arguments for slavery. Stating that the society of Northern states is a corrupt one that “[oppresses] the poor and weak-minded” while Southern society takes care of black people. Claiming “A Southern farm is the beautiful ideal of Communism.the slave consumes more than the master, of the coarse products, and is far happier.” In contrast to the mostly agriculture-dependent South, the more industrialized North did not rely heavily on enslaved labor and were against it either because of morals or seeing it as something that took away opportunities from poor white citizens. The fact that slavery did not generate as much profit for the North as the South allowed Northerners to develop a different view of it [3]. The Industrial Revolution and the rise in innovations helped advance the North and better its economy while reducing the number of workers needed for many jobs. This and the free labor ideology, the belief that free labor is superior to slave labor because of morality, both played a significant role in the North’s desire to see slavery abolished or at least kept from
When the founding fathers were drafting the Constitution, they already came across an issue that would later greatly divide …show more content…
The founders also knew that the practice was a lucrative one and feared that southern states that relied on it would refuse to be part of the union should they condemn it. Viewing slavery as unavoidable to keep the country united, he tried to make compromises that would appease both the North and South. One example of this is the three-fifth compromise. Despite seeing black people as property rather than people, southerners still wanted them to count as citizens in the populations of states to gain more political power and be able to compete against the more densely populated North. The colonists were unsure of how to include enslaved black people as citizens when it came to voting, so they settled on counting each slave as three-fifths of a person. However, this would be another thing that adds to the conflict between the two sides because of how it gave more power to the South. Upsetting Northerners because it gave the former more say when it …show more content…
This was because of how profitable cotton was and the need for more slaves due to the expansion of plantations requiring more labor. This led to Southerners becoming more defensive of slavery and making more justification for it. One person, George Fitzhugh, sums up one of the most common arguments for slavery. Stating that the society of Northern states is a corrupt one that “[oppresses] the poor and weak-minded” while Southern society takes care of black people. Claiming “A Southern farm is the beautiful ideal of Communism.the slave consumes more than the master, of the coarse products, and is far happier.” In contrast to the mostly agriculture-dependent South, the more industrialized North did not rely heavily on enslaved labor and were against it either because of morals or seeing it as something that took away opportunities from poor white citizens. The fact that slavery did not generate as much profit for the North as the South allowed Northerners to develop a different view of it [3]. The Industrial Revolution and the rise in innovations helped advance the North and better its economy while reducing the number of workers needed for many jobs. This and the free labor ideology, the belief that free labor is superior to slave labor because of morality, both played a significant role in the North’s desire to see slavery abolished or at least kept from