The Anti-Slavery Abolitionist Movement

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During the early to mid 1800s, life was brutal for enslaved men and women. They were subject to repression, harsh punishments and strict racial regulation. The North gets rid of slavery because the North wants to preserve the nation’s future civil rights, but the South wants to keep slavery. In the United States, slavery was based on race, and slaves had to be subject to poor living conditions, forced labor, physical abuse and the denial of basic human rights, but the South relied on slavery for their way of life. The anti-slavery abolitionist movement banned the importation of African slaves in the United States and British colonies in 1807, Lincoln vowed not to restrict slavery in states where it was already present, but promised to prohibit …show more content…
territories. During this time, many members favored total abolition slavery; the party pragmatically did not call for its abolition in states where it was already practiced. According to the election of Abraham Lincoln, “Things have gotten worse over time, and now America has elected Abraham Lincoln the nation’s first anti-slavery president; he only represents the Northern States” (South Carolina Declaration secession, 1870). This quote may reflect the sentiment that the socio-political situation in the United States has been deteriorating, possibly referring to the tensions and conflicts surrounding the issue of slavery. This was a problem because Lincoln was indeed the first president to spread out against slavery, and mention of him signals a shift in the political landscape towards anti-slavery sentiment. Lincoln’s election increased tensions over slavery because of Lincoln’s resistance to slavery in the United States. Tensions over slavery were high in the United States because Lincoln stated in 1858 that he did not think the Union could remain split among slave and free states. The country was split over the issue of