PROMPT: Write a very detailed essay about how slavery was abolished in the US. Your discussion of this subject must be based on the following: a description of a minimum of nine people events, documents, wars, ideologies, groups, publications, beliefs, movements, inventions or anything else you feel is pertinent to the abolition of slavery and a description of a minimum of five people, events, documents, wars etc… That helped keep slavery intact.

     Slavery has played a role in the history of innumerable societies across the globe but the United States took it to a different place. The birth of the New World under British command initiated the trend of slavery as being an early form of colonialism. In the beginning, Europe and the British did not draw a direct correlation between the concepts of racism and slavery; basically the act of owning another person was conducted solely for economic benefit. Slaves were to be bought, used for personal benefit and then sold as items. Free labor was the greatest opportunity for immense profit in a new land and the originators relied on the early emergence of Eurocentrism and the fundamental values of culture to justify their actions. Subsequently, nourished on the idea of white supremacy and raised to be owners of those unfortunate to be born with tanned skin, the new American culture grew to be racist. In 1865, directly after the Civil War, President Lincoln abolished slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment. Although this portion of history is extremely significant, it represents only a mere branch of the entire political tree that grew from the seed of people, events, wars, documents and beliefs that brought the thirteenth into existence.

     First off, to understand why people had to fight for what seems like a natural, obvious, moral right one must understand the condition of the side of the South and their justification of slavery as a rational thing. From the beginning of history there were many white indentured servants however it was not until the US decided to populate its vast amounts of empty territory by Virginians and (more importantly ) plantation owners from Barbados who owned slaves of colour. In the 1660’s England’s ’surplus’ of people was null and the colonists were looking for people to populate land in order to defend territory and make money by charging annual ‘quitrents’ on the land. The wealthy sugar plantation owners from Barbados came with the first labour system containing black chattel slavery. Unlike the white indentured servants, the Africans were forced to work for their entire lives, their children being born into an entire life of servitude. This system of labour, especially with the colonies being so young, helped the American economy grow and prosper; it is because of this that Southerners tried to justify their actions. Its been said that what’s good for a nation isn’t always necessarily good for a/some individual(s.) If a monarchy favouring hereditary succession finds the line of royalty falling into the lap of a young king with a mental birth defect, what’s good for the nation is definitely not him and because of it he more than likely would have an ‘unfortunate’ fatal accident. The Southerners tried to instate a complex of white supremacy in order to get society to think an Africans place was in slavery because darker skin tone was a sign of lower grade human; essentially they pled African genetics were inferior and they could not function as well as whites mentally. However, the undertones of this harsh, false rationalization was money. Profit for themselves (plantation owners) and prosperity for the Americas. These elements, the beginning of Eurocentrism and white supremacy ideologies, were the first important factors in keeping slaves from freedom. Fast forward to early nineteenth century America and delve into the beginning of the era’s sectional feelings. The North favoured free labour, the South primarily slave labour. With the expansion of factories, workshops, canals and railroads, workers often referred to themselves as “slaves of machines” and complained about their condition of making enough money to rent property, but not enough to own and thereby being enslaved by an endless economic tug of war. The white workers had much resentment for the (few) free black competing for their jobs in the open market and thus were not ones for freeing the entire enslaved South, and apologists from the South argued that the Northerners were hypocrites founding their half of the economy with the work of ‘wage slavery.’ This time period was significant because between the North condition of workers and the South’s defense on slavery, it sparked the beginning of a religious awakening that (in addition to others) commenced a staunch abolitionist movement against slavery. Another argument the South tried to pursue involved the book Uncle Toms Cabin and Religion. In response to the book that ultimately turned many Northerners -many of which have never seen a slave- against slavery with its powerful, sympathy evoking representation of the harsh slave life, the South decided to seek justifications for slavery in the Bible. Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterian ministers argued that patriarchs in the Old Testament and the apostle Paul in the New Testament all owned slaves; Paul even pressed a runaway to return to his master. They cited Genesis 9:25:

9:25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

 where Noah cursed his grandson Canaan (his son Ham’s son) and his future descendants to an eternal life of servitude -note that Ham was an ancestor of black Africans- and used this as blatant, divinely ordained justification for racial inequality. There were also several prominent publications such as George Fitzhugh’s proslavery books from the 1850’s and lithographs depicting the favourable contrasts of slavery in Southern America (joyful, dancing, singing Africans) versus slavery in England (small, hunched, unhappy looking white men, usually representing the North.) The South mustered everything they possibly could to try and make slavery look morally right and natural.

     Despite the South’s seemingly adequate argument for slavery, the North’s abolitionist views simply made more sense and outnumbered them. With the dawning of the Second Great Awakening and the emotional intensity of the evangelical revivals was bourne the roots of abolitionism; the belief in religious equality and the ability that every soul can obtain salvation. The first official anti-slavery group was formed in 1833 and was named, most properly, the American Anti-Slavery Society. The society (although a bit contradictory as they were reluctant to let Africans hold leadership positions) made the issue of slavery well known to colonists through the distribution of literature called the Great Postal Campaign. This was especially important because it helped broaden the cause by moving a bit away from the evangelical standpoint it had originally been nurtured on and to a more applicable orientation: the ideological and political pedestal.  There were also many less direct ways of anti-slavery ideas being introduced to the public such as the views of John Quincy Adams. Originally tolerant of slavery stating, “That the general treatment of slaves is mild and moderate,” he quickly changed his tune when he lost the reelection in 1828 mostly due to the lack of support from southern slaveholders. In 1836 when the House of Representatives presented the gag rule, Quincy was quick to petition and comment on slavery as, “A sin before the sight of God.” Other important aspects to the destruction of slavery involved black abolitionists, Christian ideologies, John Browns Raid, the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin and last but of course not least, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Black abolitionists during the Antebellum reform threw themselves wholeheartedly into the fight for emancipation, two of the most prominent being Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, both extremely effective leaders and public speakers. The Christian ideology of the time involved the self proclaimed thought of Antebellum reformers (white middle classed Protestants) as Christian soldiers (rather than social reformers) engaged in a war over morality and republican principles against the evils of sin and barbarism. John Browns Raid was led by the radical abolitionist John Brown who traveled the North giving lectures and collaborating with fellow abolitionists on plots to bring emancipation to the forefront of political, moral inquiry. In October of 1959 he and his twenty one recruits ventured Southward with the Harpers Ferry national armory as the sub-target, and the incitation of a slave rebellion that would ruin the South as the main priority. Although his raid was rather unsuccessful and he was soon executed, his mindset lived on and his actions were a strong premonition to what would come in the next couple years. The book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a huge selling point for the abolitionists and with 6.5 million sales worldwide, one of the best selling books of all time. Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the daughter of an evangelical abolitionist minister, the book depicts the gentle, good lives of two slaves and the harsh, evil treatment they received by their master. The Northerners who read the book (most of which had never seen a slave before) based their impressions on slavery solely off of its sympathy and compassion starved notes and began looking toward abolitionism. In 1862 Lincoln made comments that Stowe was the woman who “wrote the book that made this Great War.” Which segways into the four most distinguishing symbols of the anti-slavery movement (or the end to it, anyway): Abraham Lincoln and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. Lincoln was an incredible leader with a great sense of balance… he was anti-slavery yet didn’t make it the largest of his political viewpoints until it was safe to do so, he was able to maneuver through the civil war to a victory, strengthen the US constitution, keep the union together and bring justice to all. With the ratification of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, slavery became illegal, all people born in the US from then on became natural citizens and no one from then on would be denied the ability to vote based off of (most importantly) race and color. Lincoln brought about and fought through victoriously possibly the most important era of American history… the divide between early American Independence and establishment and the beginning of the modern age and the industrial era (brought about by the necessary civil war that taught Americans how to mass produce), the shift of government control from emphasis on states to central state authority and into a country experiencing a new birth of freedom.