Impact Of Slavery On Politics Between 1800 And 1860

Question 1: How did slavery affect politics between 1800 and 1860? This time era is the pre-civil war era in America. The tensions were quite high between these years only growing tighter. The North was doing all it could to stop the South and its expansion of slavery into the new western territories. The main political goal of the North was in fact to stop the expansion of slavery not abolish it from the South. The South feared that if they could not expand slavery then they are being cheated out of their American rights and after time slavery will be done completely away with. This assumption is what the Northern political leaders hoped for. The assumption was if the rest of the country keeps advancing and the South keeps slaves they will …show more content…
With time though slaves were no longer in the northern states and only in the southern. The economy and politics in the south never really changed. The South embraced their ways and viewed them as the best, while the North advanced and changed greatly. The North was now filled with factories and produced a large percentage of finished goods, but the cotton of the South made up the largest percentage of the countries exported goods. The south had a rather distinct class system planters being the richest and so on and at the bottom are slaves. I believe this is why poor whites in the South adored slavery so much because there was someone below them on the class ladder, and the poor whites had something to strive for to be just like the wealthy plantation …show more content…
Political power in America shifted slightly throughout the nineteenth century. The main political power in the early 1800’s were wealthy landowning white men. With time these powers shifted slightly when owning land was no longer a prerequisite for voting in America. This allowed almost all white men eligible to vote. Another great pull of power from the elite in America was direct election for officials. Previously select few decided made decisions for the masses they represented. So the power to the majority was growing, but this still left out slaves and women. Political power is more than just the ability to vote. Political power is having a voice or idea that can be heard and influence people and the way they think. Women made huge strives during the nineteenth century speaking publicly out against slavery, drinking, and for women rights. Free slaves had a voice in all this as well. Fredrick Douglas was an outstanding abolitionist with many great ideas. He had the power to influence many slaves and freed