Prior to the Civil War, relationships between the North and South had been poisoned by disputes over taxes. The North financed its industrial development through crippling taxes imposed by Congress on imported goods. The South on the other hand, had been an agricultural economy who had to buy machinery and such from abroad, ended up footing the bill. When recession hit in the 1850’s, Congress jacked the import taxes from 15% to 37%. The South threatened secession, Which outraged the North. The North was broadly opposed to slavery and this cultural difference shaped the rhetoric of war. Economic and cultural fear propelled the country into war, but slavery was not even the gist of it all. While the Republican Party was anti-slavery, it was
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This dispute led to secession and the secession ultimately led to war, in which the Northern states and territories fought to preserve the Union, and the South fought to establish Southern independence as a new confederation of states under its own constitution.
Dred Scott was a slave who sought citizenship through the American Legal System, and whose case eventually ended up in the Supreme Court. Scott was denied his request, stating that no person with African blood could become a U.S. citizen. Besides just denying citizenship for African Americans, it also overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had restricted slavery in certain U.S. territories. By the 1830’s, those who wished to see that institution abolished within the United States were becoming more influential. The fugitive Slave Act along with the publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, helped expand the support for abolishing slavery nationwide. Some abolitionists actively helped runaway slaves escape by the Underground Railroad, and there were times where men, even lawmen, were sent to retrieve runaways. Some of these men were attacked and beaten by abolitionist mobs. To slave holding states, this meant Northerners wanted to choose which parts of the Constitution they would enforce, while expecting the South to honor the entire document. One of the most famous activists of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, a nurse and spy in the Civil
This dispute led to secession and the secession ultimately led to war, in which the Northern states and territories fought to preserve the Union, and the South fought to establish Southern independence as a new confederation of states under its own constitution.
Dred Scott was a slave who sought citizenship through the American Legal System, and whose case eventually ended up in the Supreme Court. Scott was denied his request, stating that no person with African blood could become a U.S. citizen. Besides just denying citizenship for African Americans, it also overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had restricted slavery in certain U.S. territories. By the 1830’s, those who wished to see that institution abolished within the United States were becoming more influential. The fugitive Slave Act along with the publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, helped expand the support for abolishing slavery nationwide. Some abolitionists actively helped runaway slaves escape by the Underground Railroad, and there were times where men, even lawmen, were sent to retrieve runaways. Some of these men were attacked and beaten by abolitionist mobs. To slave holding states, this meant Northerners wanted to choose which parts of the Constitution they would enforce, while expecting the South to honor the entire document. One of the most famous activists of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, a nurse and spy in the Civil