How was slavery both a moral and an economic issue?

1. How was slavery both a moral and an economic issue? a. Explain the importance of key issues and events that led to the Civil War; include slavery, states’ rights, nullification, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850 and the Georgia Platform, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott case, election of 1860, the debate over secession in Georgia, and the role of Alexander Stephens.

2. Slavery… Early Compromises • The framers of the Constitution included several compromises over slavery in 1787. • They did not use the term slave in the Constitution… “other persons.” • Georgia and South Carolina refused to join the Union until it was agreed that Congress would not end the slave trade until after 1808. • Three-Fifths Compromise gave the South greater representation in Congress by agreeing to count slaves as part of the population. • The Constitution also dealt with the issue of slaves who escaped. A clause in the Constitution required that states had to return runaway slaves to the state where they escaped.

3. A Growing Country • The United States greatly expanded its territory westward during the first half of the 1800s. • Slavery was an issue whenever the government added a new territory. • Would the territory be brought into the Union as a slave state or a free state?

4. Was slavery the cause of the Civil War? • It is a fact that when the armies for the North and South were first formed, only a small minority of the soldiers on either side would have declared that the reason they joined the army was to fight either "for" or "against" slavery. • However, equally true is the statement: "Had there been no slavery, there would have been no war.

5. Slavery • Slavery was the moral issue of the nineteenth century that divided the political leaders. • The definition of slavery is ownership of one human being by another. The Mayflower Compact, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States declared that all men are created equal. The average American had very little interest in slaves or slavery. • Most Southerners were small farmers that could not afford slaves. • Most Northerners were small farmers or tradesmen that had never even seen a slave.

6. Why was slavery so important to the South? • The political leaders of the South recognized that if the South lost her slaves (had to pay slaves wages similar to what white laborers were paid), the entire socio-economic system would probably collapse. • Any political action that took place that threatened the slavery system of the South received the undivided attention of the South's political leaders, many of whom were themselves slave owners.

7. How did the North view slavery? • Unlike the South whose economy was dependent mostly upon agriculture, Northern states had developed industry (did not need slavery) • Political leaders in the North were much more divided about the slavery issue. • While many Northerners were abolitionists, others were either indifferent towards or supportive of slavery.

8. The Spread of Slavery • The South had an economic interest in the spread of slavery to the new territories so that new slave states could be created and the South's political influence would remain strong. • The North had an interest in limiting the spread of slavery into the new territories for both purposes of controlling Southern political power and support of the moral issue.