Slavery Of North Americ Was Slavery An Underlying Cause Of...

Slavery in North America Slavery was in North America before the English Colonies even settled there. The Spanish brought Africans to North America to replace the Native Americans that they had killed with their diseases (Lecture 1). The question is: why did Africans get chosen to become slaves, and why was slavery an underlying cause of the Civil War? The answer to these question have to deal with the influence of: psychological limitations of whites, the second great awakening, and abolition. Blacks were simply different from whites in every way. Thomas Jefferson concluded himself that emancipation would be a difficult task, because â€Å"blacks were thus inferior to whites in body and mind† (Reiss, 13). Even â€Å"the color black had a†¦show more content†¦The South also believed that their slaves were better off than North’s immigrants. The reasoning being, slaves are an investment to the South, so they will be taken care of. While Northern immigrants can be easily replace. The immigrants also live in horrible environments that leave them vulnerable to sickness. The mentality of the South also consisted of not caring that the north didn’t like slavery, because they benefit from slavery as well. 60% of the economy was based on slave labor which in the South’s eyes makes it a necessary evil. Also, with this arrogance, the south decided it was okay to punish runaway or rebelling slaves. That is why when Nat Turner convinced other slaves to rebel against their masters, because God told him to, the South killed almost all who was involved. In order to set an example to other slaves about what would happen if they tried to rebel as well The South thought it was okay to do so since blacks weren’t real people. Again the arrogant thinking of the south thinking they’re more superior to others (including the north) is what they use to justify themselves (Lecture 9). The North, however, along with many religious grou ps felt that this treatment towards the slaves were not fair. The event that sparked this thought was The Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival that happened in the