The Debate over Slavery

The debate over slavery was a prolonged battle involving writers and judges as well as politicians.

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel that criticizes slavery by painting a very unfavorable picture of life as a slave. The book had an enormous impact on public sentiment and the Civil War. Harriet Beecher Stowe was the white daughter of a prominent New England congregational minister. When Abraham Lincoln later met her in 1862, he described her as "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"^[10] Then southerners criticized (and banned) the book by claiming it was horribly exaggerated; today the book is criticized for its racist stereotypes about African Americans.^[10] But no one doubts its huge impact on America, and Europe. It may have been the best-selling book of the entire 19th century, other than the Bible.^[10]

Dred Scott v. Sanford was a Supreme Court decision in 1857, and (along with Roe v. Wade a century later) the most notorious Supreme Court case in history. The Dred Scott decision ruled that blacks have no rights and cannot sue, and are not even real citizens. It also established that Congress cannot grant freedom to slaves, because slaves are the "property" of slave owners. With this decision, the Court sought to put an end to the questions about slavery, but the exact opposite occurred. The Dred Scott ruling greatly heightened conflict and outrage about slavery. Historians speculate that President James Buchanan secretly played a role in the pro-slavery outcome by communicating with Justices on the Supreme Court.

The Dred Scott decision played a part in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. At the debate in Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln asked Douglas if a territory could exclude slavery under the decision. Douglas said that a territory could exclude slavery if it created laws that made it impossible to enforce slavery. This was consistent with his idea of "popular sovereignty," but Douglas' "Freeport Doctrine" caused the South to turn against Douglas because it meant that slaves could be freed from slave owners if a majority voted that way.

Others resorted to violent means to end the disagreement over slavery. In 1859, John Brown^[11] led a raid on Harper's Ferry. Brown hoped that his actions would spark a slave rebellion in Virginia. But Brown was caught and tried and hanged. At all times he remained defiant, refusing attempts to characterize him as insane.

Which brings us to the biggest debate question of the entire course: Could the Civil War have been avoided? Historians just took a poll on the biggest presidential blunders. At the top of the list is the failure of President James Buchanan for keeping the Union together just prior to the Civil War. What do you think?

The Whig Party completely broke up and disintegrated over slavery: the northern, abolitionist Whigs founded the Republican Party, and the southern, pro-slavery Whigs (such as wealthy plantation owners) joined the Democratic Party.