3 ms·
It seems clear that the central issue of slavery transformed over 50 years from a general agreement that it was less than ideal and would go away in its own, to
by chrisbrandow 5y ago
It seems clear that the central issue of slavery transformed over 50 years from a general agreement that it was less than ideal and would go away in its own, to a deeply polarized issue which half the country thought it an abomination that should be immediately eliminated and the other half began to to think of it as a positive good for the slaveholder and slave.
It was more regional than our current disputes which are almost fractal in their geography
- hattmall 5y agoThat's just not what happened, slavery wasn't a main topic for the average person. Even in the south where there were slaves most people didn't own slaves. The debate around it did exist but it was an infrequent topic. Much much more common was discussions regarding import and export issues and transportation networks. Support for the poor and insane were big issues. Religion and temperance we're far more debated than slavery. There's a lot of places to read newspapers from that time period online and you can see what topics were frequent and divisive.