One comment on “How did the U.S find itself in a conflict between the ideal of freedom and practice of slavery yrs1450-1865?”

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  Consrvtve

  July 20, 2010 at 2:09 am

  I’m hoping you mean 1850 because we weren’t formed until 1776, didn’t win independence until 1783 and didn’t have a Constitution until 1787. Not to mention the first English colony at Jamestown wasn’t until 1620.

  That said, there was a very big social divide between north and south. You have to keep in mind that the south needed slaves for their economy. The north (largely meaning new england) did not. New England was also the hub of puritanism which looked down upon slavery as a sin.

  Alot of people like to make the Civil war out to be an anti slavery war but slavery was just the first layer. It was a conflict over the right of a federal government which had been intended to be weak by the framers grabbing power and telling the states who were intended to be strong what to do. The north had slaves as well. In fact the Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in rebel territory. Great if you’re in Virginia. Not so great if you’re in New York.

  As far as the racial equality aspect there were many people of the time, sadly even some today who viewed blacks and other groups as lower level and not worthy of dignity, respect, etc. Several of the documents which founded the nation included references to slavery’s ills but were removed because the south threatened to boycott the revolution if it was made to look bad or be blamed in any way. To get the colonies out from under the British the buck was passed to the next generation until it came to a head in 1861.

  However, the driving force was economics. If the loss of slaves didn’t mean the collapse of the southern economy they would have most likely not fought as hard to keep them. But as evident by the way the economy took decades, even a century to recover following the civil war it really cut the legs out from under them.