Essay On Western Virginia

As a delegate of the Virginia Convention in April 1861, I would disagree that Virginia should secede from the Union. For Western Virginia, the Valley region, specifically Pendleton County, of the state, the war will mean my region and people will experience a battleground upon our soil. My sediments about the war are our first loyalties are to the consent of the governed, thus to the Constitution. My decision is to remain with the Union, because slavery directly conflicts with the ideal that all men are equal and to remain with the union better suits my people’s interests. I would disagree to secede because the Valley region largely comprises of small farmers who do not own slaves, therefore our interests do not always match with those of slaveholders. Virginia should …show more content…
Virginia was the first colony to have slaves, yet colonists did not originally come to America with slaves. While the issue of property rights and balance in political power was important, still more important is the values of the former to the oath as a state to the United States of America and the clear conflict of slavery to the original founding ideals. Virginia would not have opposed Great Britain with the other twelve original states if it did not believe in the original founding ideals, particularly in the face of what was to be the Revolutionary War. For the Valley region, the three-fifths clause does not provide much representation and the unproportional tax on slaves, as noted in the 22nd and 23rd clause of Virginia’s State Constitution. Popular sovereignty allows people living in territories to make their own slave policies and the Fugitive Slave Act can be used in such a way as to force bystanders to help capture runaway slaves. Slaves can and have revolted before, as seen in1663, the first slave conspiracy in America, the Stono Rebellion in 1739, and Fort Blount revolt in 1816. A slave’s abilities are often underestimated in the south. The public grows