Slavery in Civil War Era Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Slavery in Civil War Era - Coursework Example These came to be known as the Confederate States whose members were slave-owning states, and this led to the prominence of two men whose views on slavery were entirely opposite of one another. The first is Abraham Lincoln who was among the biggest proponents of the eradication of slavery in all the states within the union, and the other is Jefferson Davis who was a principal proponent of the institution of slavery and believed that it was a necessary part of the economy at the time. These two men shall be discussed in this paper in relation to their positions on the institution of slavery. The institution of slavery lasted for over three hundred and fifty years in what is today the United States until it was finally abolished in the eighteen sixties. It was one of the most brutal and dehumanizing institutions in the annals of the human race with the greatest victims being the African slaves. African slaves were imported like commodities from Africa to work in the large white-owned pl antations because they could withstand those European diseases, which normally killed the Indian slaves. Moreover, the ability of the Africans to work in the harsh conditions of a hot sun was seen to be an added advantage for their conversion to slaves. Europeans used various means to justify their enslavement of Africans, and one of these was that the bible stated that they were the children of Ham and that they had been cursed to be slaves to the other races that were descended from Noah. Another justification was the belief that Africans were subhuman; such that they were inferior to the white race and that because of this it was justifiable to treat them in any way one wanted because they had no human feelings at all. These highly mistaken concepts ensured that slavery continued, and many Africans were brought to America and forced to undertake tasks under extremely harsh and brutal conditions for the sake of making a profit for their masters. It is for the purpose of ending thi s institution that the American Civil War took place.