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Half Slave, Half Free States

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UNITED STATES: HALF SLAVE, HALF FREE Williams, Sharien

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REVIEW OF LITERTURE
The original thirteen colonies were divided between seven free states and six slave states. “Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were free. Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were slave owning states.” (Boritt, 2006) According to J. Newman, “slavery existed in the United States from the early 17th century until 1865, when Congress enacted the Thirteenth Amendment shortly after the Union victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War. . . slavery was firmly entrenched as the primary labor system of the South. As tobacco proved less and less profitable, however, slavery seemed to be on the decline. The delegates at the Continental Congress even briefly discussed abolishing slavery, although strenuous objections form Southern delegates, whose constituents had enormous sums tied up in slave property, brought such talk to a close quickly. The South relied on slavery to make profit, and even though the industry that gain the most profit was diminishing, they did not seek to end slavery.
Economics played a major role in slavery and the reason that the United States could not exist as half slave and half free. As seen from the beginning the colonies were not equally divided, however the issue concerning the slave states and free states peaked as the United States incorporated more colonies. The most notable issue arose when Missouri wanted to become a slave state, “Missouri's application for statehood in 1819 caused considerable controversy because, if it had been admitted as a slave state, Missouri would have tipped the balance in the Senate toward slave states. Opponents of slavery wanted Missouri to eliminate the institution prior to being admitted as a state; proponents thought that was

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