The Civil War And Its Ending Of Slavery
...slavery with the
emancipation proclamation
. I will also talk abou the physical loses of the war.
The South, overwhelmingly agricultural, produced cash crops such ascotton,
tobacco and sugarcane for export to the North or to Europe, but it depended on
the North for manufactures and for the financial and commercial services
essential to trade. Slaves were the largest single investment in the South, and
the fear of slave unrest ensured the loyalty of nonslaveholders to the economic
and social system.
To maintain peace between the Southern and Northern supporters in the
Democratic and Whig parties, political leaders tried to avoid the slavery
question. But with growing opposition in the North to the extension of slavery
into the new territories, evasion of the issue became increasingly difficult.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily settled the issue by establishing
the 36° 30' parallel as the line separating free and slave territory in the
Louisiana Purchase. Conflict resumed, however, when the United States boundaries
were extended westward to the Pacific. The Compromise Measures of 1850 provided
for the admission of California as a free state and the organization of two new
territoriesUtah and New Mexicofrom the balance of the land acquired in the
Mexican War. The principle of popular sovereignty would be applied there,
permitting the territorial legislatures to decide the status of slavery when
they applied for statehood.
Despite the Compromise of 1850, conflict persisted. The South had become a
minority section, and its leaders viewed the actions of the U.S. Congress, over
which they had lost control, with growing concern. The Northeast demanded for
its industrial growth a protective tariff, federal subsidies for shipping and
internal improvements, and a sound banking and currency system. The Northwest
looked to Congress for free...
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