Ignoring Slavery

In the early 19th century was a huge debate in american society. There were two groups of people that this debate split our country into, the pro-slavery side which was generally located in the south, and the anti-slavery side, which was generally located in the north. Our essential question for this lesson was, How did we know the debate over slavery was the “elephant in the room” for american politics in the early 19th century? To learn more about these debates and answer our essential question we  looked at many of the events that took place during this time period and compiled

the information into a timeline. The events that 

we learned about on our timeline help to prove

that slavery was “an elephant in the room” 

because while it was a big debate whether 

or not states should be free or slave states , 

the idea of slavery itself was somewhat ignored.

The first event that proves slavery to be “an elephant in the room” during the early 19th century is the Compromise of 1850.  prior to this event there had been 11 slave states, and 11 free states for 30 years because of the Missouri compromise. however, in 1850, California requested to join the nation as a free state, which inevitably would throw off the balance of free and slave states. to solve this issue Henry Clay proposed the 5 part compromise. this compromise let California be organized as a free state, but also organized New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Nevada without the mention of slavery. Also because of this compromise the slave-trade in DC was shut down, and the fugitive-slave act was passed in order to satisfy the imbalance of adding another free state. Another event that proved slavery to be “ an elephant in the room” was the Gadsden purchase. The US paid $10 million for a strip of land known as the Gadsden purchase, which would be used to build the transcontinental railroad. By doing this more pro slavery settlers would come and settle there, which would later affect the vote of whether or not the land would be free or pro slavery. Both these acts, the Compromise of 1850, and the Gadsden purchase focused on the idea of  determining whether or not states would be free or slave states. Because of this no one actually discussed and debated about what should be done about slavery, making it the elephant in the room.  

A third event that proves slavery to be “an elephant in the room” is Bleeding Kansas. In 1856 Kansas was a new territory filing for statehood, and because both pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates wanted the land to support their side, two capitals were set up, one a free capital and another a slave capital. This resulted in violent battles being fought over which side would get to have the land. Lastly, The caning of Charles Sumner is an event that took place that help to prove that slavery was “an elephant in the room”. Charles Sumner a senator during this time, spoke a two day speech about his views on slavery in Kansas titled, Crime Against Kansas. In his speech he stated, “Such is the Crime and such the criminal which it is my duty to expose; and, by the blessing of God, this duty shall be done completely to the end.” Because his speech was directly targeting those who were pro-slavery specifically Andrew Butler, his nephew, Preston Brooks, beat Sumner with a cane.  These two events help us to see that slavery was indeed, “an elephant in the room” because slavery was a somewhat ignored topic,that was never resolved which eventually lead to violence because no one knew any other way to solve the issue.