8 America in the 1850s While the North developed as a region of small farms businesses and factories the South with its warmer climate remained mostly agricultural Slaves worked on cotton plantations and also harvested sugarcane rice and tobacco Some plantations had hundreds of slaves but most had an average of ten Slaves were not citizens and had no rights or freedoms Owners bought and sold slaves like cattle In the North anti-slavery meetings were sometimes held on the Boston Common in Massachusetts
Normal family life among slaves became very difficult At any time owners could sell a mother father or child separately They might never be seen again by other members of the family If slaves disobeyed their masters they could suffer brutal physical punishment such as whippings Attitudes of people toward slavery in both the North and the South had hardened by the 1850s Most people in the North thought slavery was wrong A small but very vocal group known as abolitionists called for the immediate abolition or end of slavery Most slave owners in the South hated the abolitionists Not only were slaves valuable property a slave could cost thousands of dollars but slavery was regarded as positive and necessary especially by wealthy southern landowners To protect their own interests slave owners often promoted the false belief that slaves were inferior beings little more than children who could never learn how to take care of themselves and who were better off being kept as slaves A number of slave rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s badly frightened the white population of the South Slave laws in southern states during the 1830s and America in the 1850s 9 1840s became more severe as slaves were forbidden to travel on their own and were prohibited from being taught how to read Racism and hatred grew as the country seemed to divide along sectional lines That is between the North and South Slavery and Political Parties in the 1850s The question of how to organize the new territories affected American politics particularly in the presidential elections held between 1848 and 1856 Until the 1850s the two major political parties of the time the Democratic Party and the Whig Party attracted voters in all parts of the country In other words there were Democrats in both the North and the South just as there were Whigs in both the North and South Words to Know abolitionists ab-uh-LISH-uh-nists People opposed to slavery who demanded its immediate prohibition by law Democratic Party dem-uh-KRAT-ik PAHR-tee A major political party in the 1850s Democrats were divided over the issue of slavery and they split in two during the 1860 election Whig Party WIG PAHR-tee A major political party that was strong in the 1840s and early 1850s The Whig Party dissolved over the slavery issue in the 1850s
10 America in the 1850s As the slavery issue became more and more heated however the tensions began to change the existing political party system and the northern Democrats being anti slavery And a new political party the Republican Party was founded on the ruins of the Whig Party By the end of the 1850s slavery had The Republicans dedicated themselves destroyed the Whig Party The Democratic Party had split along sectional lines with the southern Democrats being pro-slavery Whig Party Banner Words to Know Republican Party ri-PUHB-li-kuhn PAHR-tee A major political party founded in 1854 Its major policy was complete opposition to the expansion of slavery into the territories to the complete prohibition of slavery in the new territories It is important to note that the Republican Party established in the 1790s and led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison had become the Democratic Party during the late 1820s The Republican Party of the 1850s was a new and separate party Many political leaders in Congress in the early 1850s tried to think of some way to prevent the nation from splitting apart over the slavery controversy Whigs and Democrats looked for compromises that would hold their parties and the country together Throughout the 1850s the men who served as President of the United States including Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan were all dedicated to compromise in one way or another Compromise failed however and the national crisis became worse than anyone had ever expected No one including these four powerful men was able to prevent the United States from sliding toward civil war In the end the question of slavery would be decided not by compromise but by bloody warfare
America in the 1850s 11 THE CRADLE OF THE G.O.P. The first Republican Convention or the new party also called the Grand Old Party or G O P was held in Pennsylvania on February 22 1856
