The Never Addressed Elephant

We have all heard the saying ‘the elephant in the room’. This is a metaphorical saying for an obvious truth that is being either ignored or unaddressed. In the 19th century the debate over slavery was most definitely the ‘elephant in the room’ for American politics. In class we learned about important people and events during this time such as John Brown, the Compromise of 1850, and Bleeding Kansas. As we learned about these events we created a timeline. Events and or people that dealt with the idea of anti slavery went about the timeline and those of pro slavery went below. This timeline can help show how the topic of slavery was under addressed.

group timeline

 

 

Description of events

During the 19th century a big controversy of slavery arose. The North was against slavery and the South was pro slavery. With new land coming to be apart of the United States the two sides fought each other for the new land to be either pro slavery or free. In the beginning, due to the Missouri Compromise, there were 11 free states and 11 slave states, keep each side of the North and the South content. But, in 1850 California requests to join the union as a free state. Many were concerned because that would destroy the even balance between free and slave states and southerns were concerned that Free states would have more representatives in the Senate. To settle this, Henry Clay proposes a 5 Part Compromise, known of Compromise of 1850. These 5 parts dealt with the topic of slavery so that each side would be satisfied. One such of these parts was the Compromise in Washington D.C., were slave trade was abolished but owning slaves was not. The compromise of the territories stated that the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be organized with no mention of slavery. As you can see the topic of slavery was sort of awkward for politicians; no one wanted to deal with it or pick a side overall but just compromised all together to keep the North and the South quiet.

 

Another event was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This Act was meant to to convince people to settle in the unorganized territories. The Kansas- Nebraska Act stated that the statehood would be determined by popular sovereignty. This Act then leads to what is known as “Bleeding Kansas”. This opportunity to populate territories was too good for the North and the South to pass so there was a rush of settlers to go there to state their dominance. Unfortunately, once settlers starting coming there was a violent outbreak. Many died fighting for their belief of either pro or anti slavery. This was yet another poorly handled event. The politicians let the statehood up to the people so they did not have to deal with it and in turn it ended in bloody battles.

 

Finally, in the midst of these battles and haphazard decisions, Abraham Lincoln became president. Lincoln had a set plan for the whole country, unlike any other politician before, and that was to abolish slavery. Lincoln was a very passionate man who believed strongly in the value of human rights. He believed that the majority should not have the power to deny the minority (slaves) their rights and lead the country through the civil war. Unlike before, Lincoln firmly addresses the issue of slavery and tried to change it for good and not just let the people fight amongst themselves to decide.

As you can see the topic of slavery did not get the attention it deserved in the 19th century. It was quite the ‘Elephant in the Room’; no one wanted to deal with the cold hard facts. Through all of the compromises and acts no one paid attention to the fact of what slavery was and how it was wrong. Instead, it dealt with making things equal so both and North and the South could be happy. This also included letting the people fight amongst themselves to become either a free or slave state. Not until Lincoln became president was there a firm universal stand for the country. Even though that stand was not accepted but all at first, history slowly changed itself into the free country we are today.