Slavery as an American Institution, Essay Example

Slavery as an American institution was debated constantly in congress. Arguments against slavery, that it was immoral and should be abolished, were bitterly argued against by southern farmers, who relied on the institution to keep wages low so that high profits could be made off of their plantation’s cash crops.  During the 1770’s, many laws and bills had been passed that hinted that the institution of slavery would begin to die out.  The colonies has systematically outlawed the African slave trade by 1798, although the institution of slavery itself was still intact; the law had only changed to say no new slaves could be imported.  The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had prohibited slavery in the territories northwest of the Ohio River.  Abolitionists also has emancipated laves in every state north of the Ohio River and the Mason-Dixon Line by 1804.  The strong anti-slavery movement had led many political leaders in the 1770’s to believe that the institution of slavery would simply begin to die off.  However, by the 1860’s it was still going strong.   This is because the southern states still needed slaves to clear fields and work the large plantations.  As plantation farmers moved from the old south into the new deep south, slaves were moved in what is known today as the “second middle passage”, a mass migration of slaves from colonial southern states, known as the Old South, into the new southern states, known as the Deep South, such as Louisiana and Mississippi.  The southern Democrats believed in states rights and their rights to hold slaved despite its unpopularity in the north.  They argued that their way of life would be at risk if slavery were to be made illegal, since they relied on slave labor to work their fields.  Without them, Southern farmers did not believe they would be able to produce their crops at a profit.