Lesson 3: A Debate Against Slavery
One of the great tragedies of American history was the treatment of African-Americans. African slaves arrived with some of the earliest European settlers, and slavery had been a centuries-old institution in America by the 1850s.
Civil War, American
"The chief and immediate cause of the war was slavery. Southern states, including the 11 states that formed the Confederacy, depended on slavery to support their economy. Southerners used slave labor to produce crops, especially cotton. Although slavery was illegal in the Northern states, only a small proportion of Northerners actively opposed it."—Source: "Civil War, American." Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000
Guiding Questions
What differences existed between ordinary Americans living in the North and those living in the South in the years before the Civil War?
What important issues are reflected in the differences between life in the North and the South?
What kinds of changes were taking place in the United States at the time?
Learning Objectives
Understand the conflict between North and South over the issue of slavery
Be familiar wit the arguments for and against slavery, and the history of abolitionist sentiment in America
Be familiar with the working and living conditions for slaves
Be familiar with the working and living conditions for wage workers in the North
Be aware of the extent, geographic and demographic, of slavery