The Causes Of The American Civil War
To slaves, it was White Americans getting away with heinous crimes and depriving them of their rights as humans. After so many years of oppression, eventually there will come a time in which slaves will rebel, which was one of the biggest fears white southerners shared. This fear came to light by way of the Na Turner Rebellion (1831). Nat Turner, a slave, believed that signs from nature and “divine voices” led him to believe that it was time for slaves to fight back. In this unorganized spread of terror, he recruited help from other slaves and as a result, over fifty white southerners lost their lives. After these deaths, Turner hid for approximately six weeks until he was found. He was convicted and hanged along with 16 of his accomplices. Because of this event, southerners created harsher laws for slaves to ensure that something like this does not happen again. Slavery was a major issue throughout the nation. The Wilmot proviso was a proposition, made by David Wilmot, which would eventually divide congress. The proviso stated that no slavery shall exist in lands won in the Mexican-American War. Wilmot and many other northerners felt that the entire cabinet was made up of mostly southern minds and principles. End the end, the proviso would never become a …show more content…
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of bills, introduced by Henry Clay, passed by congress in attempts to limit the expansion of slavery. Within this compromise, five bills were passed. 1. Fugitive slave law, meaning that any runaway slave shall be captured and returned to original territory. 2. The slave trade in Washington, D.C. would cease to exist. 3. California was to be entered as a free state. 4. Territorial government in Utah. 5. Settling of a boundary dispute between Texas and Mexico. Trailing behind the compromise was the publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe written in 1852. This anti-slavery novel was written to shed light on slavery and its effects on the families divided by it. It contributed to the beginning of the war by personalizing the political and economic disagreements regarding slavery. By sharing this information, it helped many Americans decide what kind of country they wanted to be a part