Alex Williams
Effects and Fears of Slavery in America
Effects of slavery in America could be looked at in both a positive and negative light. I
shall attempt to give examples of each of these views people may have had toward slavery. I
shall also address why people may have feared the expansion of slavery in this nation.
Daniel Raymond's quote about slavery being a “poisonous plant” is a very good way of
looking at it. Slavery itself was a useful thing to have in the days before agricultural machinery
was easily available and affordable. At the same time slavery was very harmful to many people,
not just the slaves themselves. An example of this could be the unemployment of many poor
Americans, as well as immigrants trying to start new lives in this nation.
According to James Madison, in his letter to Robert Walsh “ They had even prohibited
the importation of slaves into the Mississippi Territory from without the limits of the U.S. in the
year 1798, without extending the prohibition to the introduction of slaves from within those
limits.”(James Madison to Robert Walsh 1819, online) When Madison uses the term “they” I
believe he is referring to the framers of the Constitution. By this quote I am led to believe that
the framers were well aware of potential problems slavery could cause in the future. They limited
importation of slaves from other countries but didn’t include the trade of slaves already in
America. This loop hole in the Constitution might have caused slave owners to breed slaves so as
to not run out of them and to be able to sell slaves for profit. I have no historical proof to back
this up, but this could be why slavery continued to expand when importation was no longer legal
in this nation. The desperate Plantation owners wanted to stay afloat in the economy and the
ability to buy and sell slaves was a very helpful tool to do this.
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Many people feared the expansion of slavery at this time. The government may have
feared that an ever growing slave population would start a rebellion. This would kill many
Americans and possibly be the downfall of the American economy. With the slaves in revolt
plantations and farms would halt production. Many crops would possibly be destroyed by the
rebellious slaves, sending America into a deep depression. Rebellion was probably on the minds
of many others as well. Fearing their own safety. Also with the expansion of slavery many jobs
would be lost for those that needed them most, the poor and the immigrants. The loss of jobs can
be seen as an argument both for and against slavery, for free slaves would also need to enter the
job market. Many of them would work for less then what everyone else is.
The People that wanted to keep slaves saw them as valuable property that the government
wanted to take away from them. “...we are enforced by a daring attempt now on foot in several
Counties in this State by petitions warmly advocated by some Men of considerable weight to
wrest from us, by an Act of the Legislature, the most valuable and indispensable Article of our
Property, our Slaves, by a general Emancipation of them.”(Remonstrance and Petition of the
Free Inhabitants of Lunenburg County, Virginia 1785, online) These people had a high value on
their slaves. They also believed that if the slaves were free there would be trouble throughout the
land. Free slaves were thought of as being lawless, helpless and dumb.
On the other side of things were the abolitionists. They believed that slavery was morally
wrong. The abolitionists approach to the freedom of slaves was mostly peaceful. Rather than
physically attack slave owners, they tried to imprint on them that what they were doing is
harmful to all parties involved. Many abolitionists helped the slaves to freedom by assisting the
Underground Railroad. Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist, wrote the novel Uncle Tom’s
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Cabin. It was an important piece of propaganda for the abolition movement. Not only did the
novel sell extremely well it was also reenacted in theaters throughout the nation.
In the end half the nation fears slavery while the other half praises it. This brings forth
conflict when southern states want to secede from the Union to maintain their way of life. The
Civil War is ignited and by the end of the war slaves are emancipated and abolished and the
nation is left to rebuild itself.