Abolition is defined as the act of doing away with or the state of being done with. Northerners opposed the extension of slavery into western territories during the antebellum years, although most cannot be classified as true abolitionists. I support this statement and will prove that the Northerners are not true abolitionists. During the antebellum years Northerners spouted ideas of anti slavery and chastised the South because of it. In truth however, most could not be characterized as true Abolitionists. In actuality Northerners did help African Americans achieve freedom but did not “do away with” slavery.
Over the decades the country was divided between those who desired an America whose labor was legally free, and the North who believed that only a system based on slave labor could guarantee social order, as in the South. Eli Whitney’s invention of cotton gin vast
ly increased the expansion and consolidation of slavery in the South, and encouraged the acquisition of new territories. The opening of the new lands in the west after 1812 greatly extended the area available for cotton cultivation. Cotton culture moved rapidly from the Tidewater states on the East coast through much of the lower South to the delta region of the Mississippi and eventually to Texas. Sugarcane, another labor –intensive crop, also contributed to slavery’s extension in the south. The rich, hot lands of southeastern Louisiana proved ideal for growing sugarcane profitably. By 1830 the state was supplying the nation with about half its sugar supply. Finally, tobacco growers moved westward, taking slavery with them.
The spread of slavery also intensified challenges from Northerners who opposed the system on moral, political, and economical grounds. The r
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