Slavery Of The North And The Overall American Shifts

Slavery was one of the principal reasons for America gaining its financial independence, and it grew steadily up to the moment it was abolished by war. According to the Library of Congress (n.d.) the number of slaves grew from 700,000 slaves in 1790 to more than 2 million by 1830 and on the eve of the Civil War there were nearly 4 million slaves. Not only did America experience a shift in numbers doing the years of slavery but also a shift in the overall American mindset as well as the culture of the African American. With slaves having been separated from their homes families and cultures they began to merge their traditions and beliefs systems with those of the Masters while attempting to define themselves as African Americans. In the following essay I will discuss and analyze this shift in terms of slavery in the south, blacks in the north and the overall American shifts leading to the Civil War. By the time the country saw the Revolutionary era, there had been more than five gene rations of Africans on American soil and this helped usher in the idea of the African American. Many Africans Americans hoped that the Revolutionary war and the Declaration of Independence would be a stepping-stone to obtaining freedom for them and their families. Unfortunately, this was not the case, â€Å"the age of Revolution ended with a tightening of the Southern slave regime along with an intensification of resistance to slavery (Kelley, 2005, Kindle Locations 133-134)†. Even after the northShow MoreRelatedAfrican Americans and the Civil War774 Words   |  4 PagesEssay African Americans and the Civil War Slavery affected many of the political reasons that contributed to causing the Civil War in 1961. Most in the Northern states including President Lincoln were more concerned with preserving the Union rather than fighting for the freedom of all. 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