Modern History Essay
(a) Who were the abolitionists and what did they aim to do?
An abolitionist is someone who is so strongly opposed to something that he or she works, fights, argues, leads or motivates people into abolishing or putting an end to it. In the U.S. abolitionists were generally from the north of the country and worked towards ending slavery and emancipating the African Negroes held in the south.
(b) Which main issues divided North and South in 1860?
The first main issue that divided the North and South was the economy. The South was dependant on slavery as their primary income came from agriculture. They needed the African slaves to work on their plantations for extremely low wages as this meant they could sell their crops e.g.) cotton and tobacco for lower prices and export to a higher demand. In the North their primary source of income came from industrial and factory made items, which were produced often by machines and didn’t need as many staff. Therefore they had no use for slaves and the emancipation of them wouldn’t affect their economic income at all.
Another economic issue was emigrants. They went to the North as job opportunities seemed in abundance and much more frequent to the south. Not to mention the higher wages as the South was interested in cheap labour to generate more profit. So to the North they went to work in the factories and stores. This made the population in the South very stagnant. It also meant that 40% of the South’s population was made up of slaves.
The second main issue that divided the North from the South was tariffs. The middle and Northern colonies wanted tariffs to protect their young industries against British manufactured goods. These states eventually pushed the tariff bills through congress. The Southern states opposed these tariffs, which forced them to pay more for manufactured goods. However there were deeper reasons than this. By this time the South had less wealth and population than the North. Tariffs would further weaken the Southern states ability to defend slavery.
The third difference between the Northern and Southern states was a political issue. All the states were signed up to make the Union and follow the Constitution. However the Southern states wanted to secede from the Union and they made their confederacy. This was a breech of the Constitution and eventually caused the civil war.
(c) Why couldn’t the federal government find a solution to the issue of slavery that was acceptable to both sides?
The federal government tried many times to find a solution to slavery that would be acceptable to both side however they weren’t successful. Examples of these include:
When each new state wanted to enter the union, it had to enter as ‘free’ or ‘slave’. At all times there had to be an equal number of slave states and free states which meant if states entered one by one, there wasn’t equality, yet if they entered in pairs there was. The system was working until Missouri decided to enter the union in 1820, and wished to be a slave state. It’s request to join the union opened the possibility that the entire area of west Mississippi might fall to slavery. There was also another problem by 1820 northern states had more members in the house of representatives than the southern states, since the population in the North had become greater than the South. The only reason the South still felt protected at this time was because they had an equal balance in the senate, eleven free states, eleven slave states. Missouri threatened to upset this balance. There was allot at stake. If the South lost this issue and Missouri joined the Union as a free state the North would have a majority in both houses of Congress. It then had the power to make every new state that joined in the future outlaw slavery. The South would then become more segregated and eventually the North might have gotten enough power (2/3 majority) to outlaw slavery throughout the whole Union. The mater was fixed for a small time by entering Maine, which had applied to separate it’s self from Massachusetts. It was admitted as a free state, and Missouri a slave state. The South now agreed that the North should be free from slavery from the Mason Dixon line and above. This cooled arguments for a short period as every time a new state would apply to enter a similar crisis could start.
As there was no action that could fix this problem the war occurred. As the South was only equipped to fight a quick war, they lost the battle. The North had the supplies to go for a great deal longer than the South. They could also send troops to needy area’s allot quicker as they had the use of a good rail way network. They had the money, the railways and the population, which enabled them to win and emancipate slavery.
An abolitionist is someone who is so strongly opposed to something that he or she works, fights, argues, leads or motivates people into abolishing or putting an end to it. In the U.S. abolitionists were generally from the north of the country and worked towards ending slavery and emancipating the African Negroes held in the south.
(b) Which main issues divided North and South in 1860?
The first main issue that divided the North and South was the economy. The South was dependant on slavery as their primary income came from agriculture. They needed the African slaves to work on their plantations for extremely low wages as this meant they could sell their crops e.g.) cotton and tobacco for lower prices and export to a higher demand. In the North their primary source of income came from industrial and factory made items, which were produced often by machines and didn’t need as many staff. Therefore they had no use for slaves and the emancipation of them wouldn’t affect their economic income at all.
Another economic issue was emigrants. They went to the North as job opportunities seemed in abundance and much more frequent to the south. Not to mention the higher wages as the South was interested in cheap labour to generate more profit. So to the North they went to work in the factories and stores. This made the population in the South very stagnant. It also meant that 40% of the South’s population was made up of slaves.
The second main issue that divided the North from the South was tariffs. The middle and Northern colonies wanted tariffs to protect their young industries against British manufactured goods. These states eventually pushed the tariff bills through congress. The Southern states opposed these tariffs, which forced them to pay more for manufactured goods. However there were deeper reasons than this. By this time the South had less wealth and population than the North. Tariffs would further weaken the Southern states ability to defend slavery.
The third difference between the Northern and Southern states was a political issue. All the states were signed up to make the Union and follow the Constitution. However the Southern states wanted to secede from the Union and they made their confederacy. This was a breech of the Constitution and eventually caused the civil war.
(c) Why couldn’t the federal government find a solution to the issue of slavery that was acceptable to both sides?
The federal government tried many times to find a solution to slavery that would be acceptable to both side however they weren’t successful. Examples of these include:
When each new state wanted to enter the union, it had to enter as ‘free’ or ‘slave’. At all times there had to be an equal number of slave states and free states which meant if states entered one by one, there wasn’t equality, yet if they entered in pairs there was. The system was working until Missouri decided to enter the union in 1820, and wished to be a slave state. It’s request to join the union opened the possibility that the entire area of west Mississippi might fall to slavery. There was also another problem by 1820 northern states had more members in the house of representatives than the southern states, since the population in the North had become greater than the South. The only reason the South still felt protected at this time was because they had an equal balance in the senate, eleven free states, eleven slave states. Missouri threatened to upset this balance. There was allot at stake. If the South lost this issue and Missouri joined the Union as a free state the North would have a majority in both houses of Congress. It then had the power to make every new state that joined in the future outlaw slavery. The South would then become more segregated and eventually the North might have gotten enough power (2/3 majority) to outlaw slavery throughout the whole Union. The mater was fixed for a small time by entering Maine, which had applied to separate it’s self from Massachusetts. It was admitted as a free state, and Missouri a slave state. The South now agreed that the North should be free from slavery from the Mason Dixon line and above. This cooled arguments for a short period as every time a new state would apply to enter a similar crisis could start.
As there was no action that could fix this problem the war occurred. As the South was only equipped to fight a quick war, they lost the battle. The North had the supplies to go for a great deal longer than the South. They could also send troops to needy area’s allot quicker as they had the use of a good rail way network. They had the money, the railways and the population, which enabled them to win and emancipate slavery.
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