The 1850’s Were a Time of Attempted Compromise When Compromise Was No Longer Possible

The 1850’s Were a Time of Attempted Compromise When Compromise Was No Longer Possible

The 1850’s were one of a chaotic time in American history. The North and the South were fighting over the slavery issues. The North viewed slavery as immoral and unconstitutional. The South wanted slavery to stay because it was the South’s right to do so. Africans were long viewed by other people as the lowest beings, as properties, therefore, justified slavery. The North and the South were divided but they could not let go of each other. They attempted to compromise to prevent larger conflicts. Unfortunately, there were various events that happened along the way that made compromise impossible. The statement, “The 1850’s were a time of attempted compromise when compromise was no longer possible,” is a true and valid description of the United States during the 1850's.
In 1850, the Compromise of 1850 was passed. It admitted California as a free state. It allowed Utah and New Mexico to decide whether to be free states or slave states by themselves. It also passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This law required that authorities in the North had to assist southern slave catchers to retrieve and return slaves to their owners. Southern slave owners could get their slaves back when they escaped to the North. As the result, Southerners favored this act because the Fugitive Slave Act could help preserve slavery in the South and protects its economy. The Northerners strongly opposed and did not enact this new Fugitive Slave Act. One of the Northerners, Joshua Giddings in his speech to Congress, 1850, condemned the ones who enacted the act as “guilty as he under whose lash the victim express.” The blacks in the North would be the most terrified ones. This act would allow slave owners to capture free blacks and put them back into Southern plantations. This led to the creation of resistance groups in the North. This Compromise of 1850 attempted to hold the Union but it failed because it created even more hatred of the North for the South and the South for the North.
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