Slavery Overshadowing a Government and Their Torn Country

         Between 1850-1859 the tension north and the south of the United States grew over the debate of slavery. Everyone from both sides were looking towards the government to solve problems that were starting to arise. But the government was having a hard time handling how to solve the issues. So instead of confronting them the government stayed low and did not do much to help ease the tension. Four events happened during this time that tipped the anger between the two sides over the edge and the government did very little to help ease the tension. These events were Bleeding Kansas, the caning of Charles Summer, the Dred Scott decision, and the John brown raid. In class we looked at these events on depth and added them to a timeline; meanwhile we tried to find out each event answered the essential question. The question was How do we know the debate over slavery was the "elephant in the room" for American politics in early 19th century?

          First of the four major events was bleeding Kansas. After the Missouri Compromise and the 36th parallel was ignored so the northern transcontinental railroad could be built it allowed Kansas to be either a slave or a free state, by the Kansas Nebraska Act, which led to a battle between the North and South. There was Lawrence, that was a anti-slavery town, which was burned down by southern people. Then, a group of anti-slavery men led by John Brown massacred 5 proslavery supporters in front of their families. Instead of stepping in and stopping violence the government in Washington could think of nothing to do and avoided trying to solve it because they couldn't think of anything. Then, the violence actually traveled to Washington. After the speech, "The Crime Against Kansas", by senator Charles summer who was  a strong anti-slavery supporter many southerners were upset. One in particular was Representative Preston Brooks because Summer targeted his uncle, Senator Andrew Butler. In response Butler beat Summer over the head with a cane leaving him permanently brain damaged. It's obvious that the country was about to collapse because if the government is having to use violence, why shouldn't the rest of the country? And it was all because of slavery and everyone knew it, but no one was doing anything about it. Next, the Dred Scott Decision changed everything in the fight of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was suing his owner because he believed he should be a free man because he lived in free states. The case was brought to the supreme court. Scott lost the case and the north was outraged. Obviously no matter what the decision one side would be angry, but what resulted because of the case was the most shocking. Because of the case the Missouri Compromise was repealed and slavery was legal all across the United States. This was the wrong way of handling the case and the government gave no benefits to the North, but the government didn't fix their mistake. Finally, the John Brown raid. John Brown and 21 men, five were african americans, raided a federal arsenal in the South. Brown was caught and hanged for his actions. The North saw him as a hero, but the South were very upset. This event caused the tension to a tipping point. The government did nothing to try to ease the tension because they knew the raid had to do with the conflict of slavery. All of these events show just how emphatic the government was to not discuss the issue of slavery because if they made one decision one of the sides would see it as the government taking the other group's side. So slavery was the 'elephant in the room' for the government because it was topic that was looming over their head, but they couldn't try to solve the issue that was tearing the country apart.