Kayla Marie Franceschi

F Band United States History

February 13, 2009
An American Disgrace
When the founding fathers chose what to include in the Constitution, their goal was to
create a timeless document that was not polluted by the remnants of an aristocratic and racist
former government but a document that encouraged an American democracy which gave
equality and civil rights to all. They failed to do so and ignored the important debate over the
expansion of an immoral and peculiar institution known slavery, in doing so they set a precedent,
whenever the issue of slavery was to arise in the future it would be ignored and silenced before it
could upset anyone, this is evident in many crises. Ignoring the problem could not go on forever,
in most cases, there was no solution to the problem, only a cease-fire. Attempts to solve the
problem were too late; Americans everywhere began to attack and defend the morals of slavery,
using arguments such as profitability to sway apathetic Americans to their side. Even women
united to fight against the peculiar institution, leading to the Civil War. Many assume that the
Civil War was an age old battle over slavery caused by the collaboration of a moral, economic
and political struggle; it is more accurate to say that every cause of the Civil War derives from
politics. Had the nation been willing to tackle slavery in the drafting of the Constitution, instead
of postponing it each and every time, there would have been no need for a Civil War.
Many assume that abolitionism is something limited to the 19th century, but abolitionism
had been around for a very long time. Even though in the time immediately after the American
Revolution many Americans believed God created all equal, they still felt that slavery was more
than just religiously wrong, it was politically wrong; at the same time Americans fought for
freedom they denied African Americans this very right. Years before most northern states
abolished slavery in their state constitutions, Thomas Jefferson had said that slavery is “against
human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant
people”1. People who strongly believed this and believed slavery should end began making many
changes in society. While fighting to free slaves, women were fighting to gain rights in society
and in the political realm so that they could be heard, women like the Grimke sisters (Angelina
and Sarah) were fighting to abolish slavery by whatever means necessary, Angelina Grimke even
went far enough to say, “I want to be identified with the negro, until he gets his rights, we shall
1
“Thomas Jefferson, Paragraph from Jefferson’s Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence - Eliminated from the Final
Draft by the Continental Congress (1776)”, Fieldston American Reader, p. 108

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never have ours.”2 Sojourner Truth presented her speech at a woman’s rights convention asking
“Then they talk about this thing in the head: what’s this they call it? “Intellect,” someone
whispers. That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or Negro’s rights?”3 This
was something that would never have been commended prior to the abolitionist movement. It
was almost impossible to appeal to men with the arguments that women used, women compared
their domestic labor to the strenuous labor of slaves and their marriages to the oppression of
slaves. This argument caused many women to leave their homes and actively take a part in war,
but not to fight in war, though some did. In fact, abolitionism in its entirety only raised eyes and
ears, people who had previously kept a blind eye to slavery now kept both wide open;
abolitionism could be a cause of the abolition of slavery after the Civil War, but not during. A
call for social reform is not a call for war.
At the time of the Civil War many believed that slavery could no longer be profitable,
after several years in a plantation, planters moved westward for better soil. It was nearly
impossible to remain economically stable in that particular field of work. Dependent on trade
with European countries, the cotton market was highly unstable. But on the other hand slavery
posed no threats to the economy. Moore’s ideas by saying that “the slave system presented no
obstacle to the growth of industrial capitalism as an economic system” 4, he even says that
“labor-repressive agricultural systems, and plantation slavery in particular, are political obstacles
to a particular kind of capitalism, at a specific historical stage: competitive democratic capitalism
we must call it for lack of a more precise term.” In fact, had the war been fought because of the
economy, one would expect significant changes in the economy afterwards or at least positive
changes during the war. In an effort to win the war, the Union did use the Confederate economy
to force them to surrender, but using something to win a war is much more different than
winning a war to win something.
The root of sectionalism did not come from slavery or representation in the government.
The root of sectionalism came from the battle over what type of government would be best for
America, many supported states rights, and many supported a strong central government.
Southerners supported states rights and the reason why is really quite simple. Beard says that
“merely by the accidents of climate, soil and geography was it a sectional struggle”5. Because of
2
Angela Davis, Women Races and Class, p. 44
3
“Ain’t I a Woman”, Fieldston American Reader, p. 269
4
James M. McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, p. 9
5
McPherson… p. 8

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this coincidence, most of the problems over the American government were seen as a sectional
conflict. An attempt to help end sectional debate over the expansion of slavery into the Western
states which said that slavery was banned in the territory acquired in the Louisiana purchase
above 36º30’. This compromise was torn apart when new territories were gained in Mexico.
Stephen Douglass, the Illinois senator, proposed a bill to organize the territory west of Missouri
and Iowa, but in order to gain southern support for such a bill, he had to also have the Missouri
Compromise repealed (the Kentucky Nebraska-Act) and reinforce a stricter Fugitive Slave Law.
The Compromise of 1850 and the stricter Fugitive Slave Law are the offspring of this agreement.
In the beginning, most of the presidents had been from the south, however when Lincoln was
elected in 1860, he was elected without southern support. This was something that southerners
had feared for a long time, the Northern states had finally gained control of a government, it was
even more shocking that Lincoln would have one if the votes against him had all gone to one
candidate, this caused the Deep South to secede, the North’s failure to compromise was the
reason the southern states fired the first shot, belief that the Southern states had no right to secede
is the reason the northern states shot back.
In today’s society, there is seldom a person who would openly state that slavery was
beneficial to the American government both today and in the America of the 19th century.
Because abolitionism attacked southern morality, and economic arguments attacked the
profitability of slavery, it is impossible for either to have been the main cause of the war. If such
were the case, racial equality would have been fought for even after emancipation and there
would have been an end to agricultural capitalism, but clearly it was not. All cases where slavery
was ignored for political peace could have been more than a cease-fire, but they were not. The
Civil War was not inevitable, had the opportunity to end the unconstitutional institution been
taken earlier in America’s history, it might not have been such a drastic case. Six hundred and
eighteen thousand men died for a cause, a political cause that was hardly over slavery but over
American principles. Had this clear betrayal of civil rights been addressed in a different manner,
the economically controversial and immoral institution could still be in use today.