The American South

Introduction

The history of African Americans begins with the arrival of the first slaves in European colonies, from which the United States emerged 1776th Large numbers of African slaves came onto American South, after the colonies plantations developed economies, which were highly profitable, their demand for labor by domestic wage workers but could not be met. The economic and political differences between the northern states that had abandoned slavery in 1776 in multiple steps, and the southern states, which held it culminated in 1861 in the Civil War, which ended in favor of slavery authorizing Southern with a defeat.

By the early 1800s, there were several anti-slavery movements that initiated from the Northern States. Along with that, there were several abolitionists, black and white that fought to exploit slavery (Sacvan, 67-71). The Northern states aimed to develop a strong centralized government while Southern states disagreed and fought to govern themselves. Since the South was so rural and depended on cash crops, they felt that this would have a huge affect on their economy. Not only were they separated by their beliefs, but also by slavery. This resulted in two nations being divided which contributed to another cause of the Civil War.

Discussion

The Civil War began on April 12, 1861. It not only affected the North (Union states), the South (Confederate states), and enslaved African Americans; but also whites, slave owners and freed African Americans. In Mittendorf (1997) “As the North and South became increasingly polarized over slavery in the 1850s; the North and South became suspicious of each other's power”. Mittendorf (1997) states Disputes between supporters of slavery and the proponents of free labor for political, economic, cultural, and ideological differences that divided the country during the war”. President Lincoln justified the war as trying to save the U.S. from becoming two separate countries, but was convinced by abolitionists and African Americans to add the war as means to exploit slavery (Mittendorf, 45-51).

After the war took its course, it began turn in favor of Northern States. There were several actions that surfaced that caused slave owners to start losing their slaves. In 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. It stated, Mullane (1993) “all persons held as Slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall there be in rebellion against the U.S., shall be the thenceforth and Forever Free”. This caused Judith (2003) “raids on plantation by soldiers of both armies which increased the difficulty of the slaves work”. This affected the institution of slavery and played a major role in slave owners losing their free labor. African Americans figured that this would be a great opportunity to start rebelling from their masters, rioting on the plantations, and escaping to the Union lines to fight against the Confederate states in order to seek liberty. The South was angry over losing the war and its slaves. This affected their economy by losing free labor and also increased the chances of facing their own slaves ...