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Essay On Slavery In America

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Slavery and its effects on american is a topic that can be debated from many different angles. Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown. Slavery slowly started causing a divide between the North and South. The north led by President Lincoln believed that slavery should be abolished. The South had a majority of the slaves. Slaves at that time were a necessity in the south, to some southerners slaves were worth more than money. The North and South divided and the Civil War began.The Underground Railroad raised the question of slavery, which did divide the nation a little and furthered the hatred between the north and south helping to cause the Civil War. Although it changed …show more content…

At this time Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the confederate states gave his “Cornerstone Speech” in which he declared that "our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition." his support of slavery was opposed by many. One man opposed to his opinions was President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln makes his stance on slavery very clear in one of his speeches where he states “I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist. I have been an Old Line Whig. I have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska Bill began. I always believed that everybody was against it, and that it was in course of ultimate extinction.” Even based on these statement some still do not see Lincoln as an “abolitionist”. This is due to the fact that Lincoln came late to the anti-slavery cause and, at every stage, trailed behind others who were more committed, more able to rise above the pervasive racism, more willing to risk their reputations for the cause. But no abolitionist could ever have become president in

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