Slavery and Sectional Attitudes, 1820-1860: What arguments did each side marshal in support of its case?

By the mid 1830s many Americans were now having mixed fillings about slavery. In fact the nation was even threatened to separate over the whole issue. Perhaps it was one of the main reasons that the United States has fought the civil war. Basically the majority of the people living in the north were against slavery, and the white southerners were proslavery.

The north saw slavery as an evil. They said that it was immoral; that in a nation such as the United States, where principles of equality and freedom come from, slavery is wrong and shouldn't exist. In addition, the north argued that the nation shouldn't depend on only the crops produced by slaves. It should engage in other systems of commerce.

In October of 1854, Abraham Lincoln made a speech about slavery at Peoria, Illinois. He said that slavery violates many principles of the United States' politics. How can slavery exist in such a nation where freedom and equality exist? In this speech he warned all Americans that if they continue to exploit the slaves for profit then the nation may fall and even white man's freedom could be jeopardized.

Simon Legree and Uncle Tom: A scene from the aboli...

Lyle Closs, Slavery

English: The Old Plantation, ca. 1790-1800. Waterc...

In 1857, Hinton Helper has published a book called "The Impending Crisis". In this book he stresses on the economic effects of slavery. He argues that the United States has grown so accustomed to slavery that it has forgotten other systems of commerce. He says that the nation cannot depend on only slavery and the staple crops. He suggests that the U.S. should start to seek other means of obtaining wealth. He says, "We must begin to feed on a more substantial diet than that of proslavery politics.... Before us there is vast work to be accomplished... It is not less a work than that of infusing the...