In most Northern states, segregation was rampant, Blacks were barred from voting and violence against them was common.īy the 1850s, it became more difficult for the federal government to satisfy either side. A smaller group, known as abolitionists, wanted slavery to end immediately.īut even though many Northerners opposed the expansion of slavery, they did not favor equal rights for Black people. In the North, people generally opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories, and many favored the gradual emancipation of enslaved people. They also supported an effort to purchase Cuba and add it as a slave state. In 1845, they pressured the federal government to annex Texas, where slavery was legal. White Southerners believed slavery had to expand into new territories or it would die. Increasingly, the North and South were at odds over the future of slavery. By 1860, nearly 4 million enslaved people lived in the South. It grew so quickly that by the time Colonists fought for their independence from England in 1775, slavery was legal in all 13 Colonies.Īs the 19th century progressed, Northern states slowly abolished slavery but Southern states made it central to their economy. began at least as early as 1619, when a Portuguese ship brought about 20 enslaved African people to present-day Virginia. By the time of the Civil War, Black people were the ones enslaved white people were not.Įvery American citizen, whether born in this country or naturalized, should understand that the conflict over slavery is what caused the Civil War. What’s more, unlike slavery in the ancient world, slavery in the United States was based on race. White Southerners left the Union to establish a slave-holding republic they were dedicated to the preservation of slavery. Moore/LOC/Archive Photos via Getty Images Enslaved people and soldiers on a South Carolina plantation in 1862.
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