The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are a series of seven famous debates fought by Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in 1858. The debates were fought over the common issue of slavery. Slavery was either seen as a positive good for both white and black people, or as unhuman and sinful. Each debate lasted about three hours long and each politician spoke their thoughts bravely. The causes for these debates between the two men is a simple thing to understand. The causes were simply slavery and the issue over states’ rights. The men both had different views regarding slavery and back then a consensus was terribly needed. So exclusively the issue of slavery is what mostly caused these debates, but for more understanding, where did slavery come from? Slavery was first known in the Mesopotamian civilizations of West Asia, as well as in many other civilizations, in as far back as 3500 B.C. Several wars of that far back in history resulted in taking Christian slaves. Soon the act of slavery spread throughout Europe and became common during the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages. Then many kingdoms such as the Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese and more played an outstanding role in the Atlantic Slave trade. When the slaves finally arrived in America many people eventually took them in on plantations to do work. Some people treated their slaves nicely, and others didn’t. Some people supported slavery and some didn’t, which ultimately led to sectionalism, in the United States. Now, here’s where
