In the late 1700’s, slavery was becoming less and less common across the United States. Most farms were small and did not need the extra help, and most farmers …show more content…
Some members of society and the government were daunted by the large task of abolishing slavery and were scared that their lives would be at risk if they went against this century-long practice. They made up excuses and tried to justify their beliefs. Many people took the historical position that slavery has been around since the beginning of time and that the Greeks, Romans, and the British, which were some of the most accomplished civilizations in history, were all developed by the help of slaves. The question was often asked that if slavery has been working for so many years, then why should it be changed? Many southerners truly believed that if slaves were taken away, the economy would collapse and the country would fall into a deep depression due to the lack of resources to supply the quickly growing factories. The cotton industry was the main source of income and jobs for the United States, so many people found this to be truly believable. Some people chose to use the bible and scripture as proof that slavery was acceptable, while others used moral and social excuses. Whatever the excuse, the Southerners were persistent in fighting for their cause and never giving up the opinions and beliefs that they had founded their lives …show more content…
Congress faced the dilemma of whether to add these new states as free or slave states. They mostly tried to keep the balance even, but some states were allowed to choose. For example, Kansas was allowed to vote for their position on slavery. This caused many problems since Kansas’s closest neighbor was Missouri, who wanted Kansas to be a slave state. This led to the development of a new group of people called “border ruffians”. These people would gather together and cross the borders into other states, and vote at their polls so they could sway the votes in that state. To make matters even worse, they told people at the polls that if they did not vote the way they told them to, then they would be punished or killed. This illegitimate voting caused outrage and eventually led to the split of the state of Kansas. Even after this division, groups from opposite sides would cross the borders and destroy everything that their enemies owned, and they even took victims lives. These conflicts only gave a small insight into the turmoil that was growing in the United States that would eventually lead to the breakout of the Civil War.
Although the growth and development of our country’s economy was a huge step in the right direction, the expansion and progression of the slavery system that supported it was a huge black eye on the history of our nation. The North and South both