While General Kelly, President Trump’s current Chief of Staff, believes that the American Civil War began because of an inability to compromise, I think that compromising on the issue of slavery was simply not an option. Unity was key for America to pursue not only its moral aspirations, but for it to eventually emerge as an economic powerhouse and a world power. Even though the Confederates, especially those belonging to the Planter Class, believed that their economic wellbeing, and perhaps even life itself, was tied to the system of slavery, they seemed oblivious to the gains of industrialization in the North. As a result, the citizens of most slaveholding states, the majority of whom didn’t own slaves, were willing to secede from their beloved
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While some colonists willingly made the trek from Europe to flee from religious persecution, other Europeans were forced to emigrate to America for previous transgressions that they had committed. Of course, there were Europeans that were willing to risk the journey to America to exploit the spoils of this new land. Considering the varying experiences and beliefs of these social groups, it was plausible for America, or the great experiment, to fail. For this great experiment to work, compromise between differing social classes was necessary. In my opinion, condoning slavery was probably the most significant compromise made by our forefathers to unify the country against Great Britain. This first concession of many was made within the original United States …show more content…
Although the actual term slave was never used in the Constitution, the forefathers made it clear that a person held to service or labor could never be discharged from service unless his master released him. This reveals that the majority of slaveholders in the South viewed their slaves to be pieces of property like a horse or a piece of land. The final provision of the Constitution that signaled that the issue of slavery could be a precursor to secession and the American Civil War was that the authors of the Constitution agreed that the American slave trade should be abolished by 1808 (Wilentz). Overall, the provisions about slavery in the original Constitution demonstrated not only a discord between Northern and Southern legislators, but it illustrated how economically valuable slaves were as property to their Southern
While some colonists willingly made the trek from Europe to flee from religious persecution, other Europeans were forced to emigrate to America for previous transgressions that they had committed. Of course, there were Europeans that were willing to risk the journey to America to exploit the spoils of this new land. Considering the varying experiences and beliefs of these social groups, it was plausible for America, or the great experiment, to fail. For this great experiment to work, compromise between differing social classes was necessary. In my opinion, condoning slavery was probably the most significant compromise made by our forefathers to unify the country against Great Britain. This first concession of many was made within the original United States …show more content…
Although the actual term slave was never used in the Constitution, the forefathers made it clear that a person held to service or labor could never be discharged from service unless his master released him. This reveals that the majority of slaveholders in the South viewed their slaves to be pieces of property like a horse or a piece of land. The final provision of the Constitution that signaled that the issue of slavery could be a precursor to secession and the American Civil War was that the authors of the Constitution agreed that the American slave trade should be abolished by 1808 (Wilentz). Overall, the provisions about slavery in the original Constitution demonstrated not only a discord between Northern and Southern legislators, but it illustrated how economically valuable slaves were as property to their Southern