Slavery In The Book, Founding Brothers

As the United States grew and leaders started to arise, disputes emerged and were worked out; during the time period of the Founding Fathers, the topic of the slave trade was highly disputed and peoples views were disparate. The Constitution, at the time, forbid Congress from passing any law that abolished or restricted the ongoing slave trade; but a small petition led to a national debate and dilemma. In the Book, Founding Brothers, written by Joseph J. Ellis, arguments and debates took place disputing the topic of slavery; compelling reasoning arose from both sides and these will be shared throughout this comprehensive essay.
A petition presented by two Quakers rose the question of the slave trade in the book, the first occurrence of many more dialogues to happen in the future. …show more content…
Ellis suggests that the Founding Fathers were silent on the question of slavery not because of a lack of a moral compass; but more due to their worry of their growing and fragile nation; and what a divided topic such as slavery might do to their Union. Although the moral dilemma of slavery means too much to me to not side with the North, the Southerner’s points on how ending the slave trade would have a negative impact make more sense and have more legitimacy, not considering the moral issue at hand. The needed money to compensate all slave owners and successfully relocate all slaves would cause an enormous amount of debt. Also, it is true that slaves do the majority of the agricultural work which allowed for success; taking this aspect away would also cause political and economical struggles for the growing nation. These were the two most impactful con points on the Southern position. Although I truly believe that morally, slavery is wrong, I believe the Southern position had more valid points on why the success of the growing nation relied on