Essay on "Honest"

Essay 4 pages (1476 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Honest Abe

As abhorrent as it may seem in the contemporary world, slavery as an institution has been part of human civilization since recorded history. In most cultures, a slave had more intrinsic value than precious metals. In the United States, slavery began in the early 1600s, when African workers were imported to tend the burgeoning agricultural sector -- a practice established in the Spanish colonies during the 1500s (Davis, 2006, 124). It was this inexpensive labor that helped agriculture grow so qauickly, especially in the high-value, labor intensive areas of the southern United States. Although the legal importation of slaves from Africa ended shortly after the American revolution, historians estimate that over 650,000 Africans were brought to the United States between 1600-1790; a population that grew to over 4 million just prior to the Civil War (Social Aspects of the Civil War, 2009).

The institution of slavery was nearly always contentious in U.S. politics. It was hotly debated during the Continental Congress, with the northern colonies finally conceeding that to ratify the Constitution they would need to allow the south to retain slavery. However, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the Dred Scott decision, the Underground Railroad, and numerous literary publications turned the issue into one of symbolic polarization between slave states and free states; culminating in the Civil War when the southern states opted for sucession from the Union.

Essentially, several factors contributed to the change in American attitudes towards slavery. Westward expansion and the idea of new slave or free states continued to polarize the nation, as well as the religious views denouncing slavery in some denominations and upholding it in others during the 1830s and 1840s. Indeed, much of the rhetoric against slavery dealt with power and economics: the southern states believed in their right to uphold a 200-year-old institution. The northern states, where the large portion of the manufacturing was located, used the ethical and moral stance that slavery was evil to control U.S. fiscal policy and to attempt to wean the South away from Great Britain. The idea of slavery, though, was just part of the factors that led to southern secession -- and a new southern nation, the Confederate States of America, was unacceptable to most northern politicians. However, the famous Emancipation Proclamation not only contributed to the resolution of the war, but forever changed the way humanity viewed the instituion of slavery. However, the conflicts during the war, the religious and political situation, and international pressure resulted in the 13th Amendment to the Constituition. This abolished slavery (1864) and changed forever the social and cultural face of the United States (Slavery and the Making of America 2004).

Because of the new philosophical mandates arising from not only Europe but from the newly created United States, rationalist thinkers used the Enlightenment to reassess man's place in the universe and in congruency with his fellow man. Of course this led to outright questioning of the slave trade, and the movement of abolitionism became a unique cause in the Americas, and even in Eastern Europe and Russia. This movement gained momentum in the United States after the British outlawed slavery in the 1830s, and seemed to culminate with the ultimate abolitionist -- a duly elected President of the United States.

President Abraham Lincoln delivered "The Emancipation Proclamation" in 1863, with the belief that this would preserve the Union. At the time it did not call for the destruction of slavery, but rather to give the Union one more advantage over the South. Giving black slaves freedom from their rebel masters helped the Union physically and morally. At the beginning of the War, the Union believed that the South was weaker industrially, and would cave to pressure earlier. However, the South had many experienced wartime leaders and soldiers from the Mexico-American War, and a resolve for which the North was unprepared. The early tide of the War did not favor the North, and public opinion for Lincoln began to wane. For example, popular newspaper publisher Horace Greeley expressed some of the major sentiments of the time commenting on Lincoln's reactions towards the South, "Why theses traitors should be treated with tenderness by you, to the prejudice of the dearest rights of loyal men, we cannot conceive." He felt slavery was the main reason for this war, causing the Union to suffer, so it needed to be destroyed. "...that whatever strengthens or fortifies Slavery in… READ MORE

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