Expansion of Slavery and its Role in the US Civil War

by juju123juju (student)

Topic: Expansion of Slavery and its Role in the Civil War

Slavery contributed as a primary cause to the American Civil War, as most of the issues that terminally justified a reason to go to conflict, were based off underlying reasons about the expansion of slavery. Slavery proves as a root cause to the war as it was directly related of most of the issues that ultimately led to conflict—even issues that weren’t concerned about the moral rectitude of slavery. Only then can we truly analyze the extent of the slavery and its expansion as a to cause the war. Issues related to protectionism between the North and the South proves an instance were the ideological underpinning was not based on slavery.

The Abolitionist desire to limit slavery to the South, so that it would lead to the path of gradual extinction was a result of (1) sectional differences between the North and the South. This in turn angered the South, as they perceived this ‘strategy’, as violation of their Constitutional rights. It is important though, that at the time the primary focus was not to abolish slavery, but it to limit the influence it had (to indirectly kill it). Also, the South felt particularly threatened, as slavery was the lynchpin to their economy compared to the northern manufacturing economy independent of slaves. Furthermore, the South being conservative tried to continue the tradition of slavery just as their “founding fathers” did. Therefore, defending these sectional differences justified a reason for the South to go to war, as restricting slavery would threaten their way of life. The abolition of slavery would devastate the southern economy, as they would lose their primary workforce.

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In the federal government, (2) the political issues centered on balancing the number of slave and free states, as this affected the number of congressmen from each state. If either side had the numerical advantage of more representation in Congress, then either the North would abolish slavery or the South would expand it. This core issue was particularly evident in the admittance of Missouri as a slave state; however as a result of the Missouri Compromise, it followed up with Maine being admitted as a free state to maintain the balance. These issues that were related to the expansion of slavery, and resulted in increased political tensions between the North and South, as the North campaigned against slavery, while the South remained a strong proponent for it.

Federal policies in attempt to completely solve the conflict with slavery, for example, (3) the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 worsened the tensions regarding the expansion of slavery, as the result foreshadowed the impending war. Stephen A. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill that stipulated that popular sovereignty, would decide whether slavery is allowed or not. The resulting public reaction against it created pervasive protest in the Northern states, as it was perceived as an effort to repeal the Missouri Compromise. Eventually, the popular reaction did came due to propagation through the political leaders. Therefore, the Act divided the nation and pointed it toward civil war as it effectually nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. The resulting turmoil over the act split both the Democratic and Whig parties and thus, gave rise to the Republican Party, which split the United States into two major political camps; North to be Republican and South to be Democratic.

As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, (4) Bleeding Kansas ensued in 1854-1861, which was known as a series of violent political confrontations involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery conflicts, which took place in the Kansas Territory. The reason for conflict was over the issue of Kansas entering the Union as a free state or slave state. What happened here in Kansas epitomized the sectional controversy between the North and South. The events it encompasses directly presaged the American Civil War as it elevated tensions regarding the expansion of slavery into the west. The root cause of this conflict was purely motivated by slavery and its expansion—slavery was once again the underlying reason that justified all of these conflicts.

Furthermore, the issue of slavery was apparent in (5) States’ Rights or Nullification where States had certain rights—but ultimately the question was if those rights carried over when a citizen left a state. The South believed that citizens of every state had the right to take their property anywhere in the US and not have it taken away (they could bring their slaves anywhere and they would remain slaves). However, the North rejected this belief or ‘right’, because it functionally violated the right of free states to outlaw slavery within their jurisdiction—thus defeating the purpose. Republicans committed to ending the expansion of slavery were among those opposed to any such right to bring slaves and slavery into the free states and territories. Furthermore, the South also advocated that each state had the right to secede. Their justification of that came from the belief that the Constitution was merely an agreement among the states. On the contrary, the North rejected that notion as opposed to what the founding fathers intended, a ‘perpetual union’. Though this wasn’t particularly evident, this conflict over States Rights’ reflected more tensions between the North and the South, and how it indirectly relates to the subject of the expansion of slavery—the South’s beliefs all worked out of its interests, thus those beliefs propagated slavery.

An instance where slavery was not the underlying reason for a cause to the war was the issue regarding (6) protectionist policies between the North and the South. The Southern states, had little perceived need for industrialization because of their low cost manual labor. They advocated their ability to sell and buy cotton from any nation. On the contrary, Northern states had heavily invested in their manufacturing, however they could not compete with the industries of Europe who offered high prices for cotton imported from the Southern states while getting low prices for manufactured exports in return. As a result, the Northern states supported tariffs and protectionism because it helped them survive. The Democrats in Congress, controlled by Southerners kept reducing rates so that the 1857 rates were the lowest. The South had no complaints but the low rates in turn angered Northern industrialists, who demanded protection for their growing industries. Even political opposition to the Democrats involved the Whigs and Republicans favoring high tariffs to stimulate industrial growth. As a result of their beliefs, the Republicans called for an increase in tariffs in the 1860 election to promote their industrial economy. This was another issue that provided the South with an incentive to secede, as only through secession they would gain to ability to freely trade with anyone they chose for lower prices. Lincoln’s election in 1860 would only guarantee protectionism. This issue of protectionism in the United States shows the extent to which slavery was not pertinent in causing the war.

*Wikipedia was used