Why did Americans fear the end of slavery?

Answer 1

In the South many people didn't want it to end because the slaves used to do most of the farm work, like pick the cotton and other stuff, so they feared it would destroy their economy.

This referring to the American South. Not South America.

Answer 2

Southern Production not only heavily relied on slavery, but they were such big producers of certain products, they even had other countries buying there products, and other parts of the country relied on them.

Answer 3

Many Americans in the antebellum years were calling for an end to slavery because as did Abraham Lincoln, they believed that the Nations founding documents, especially the Declaration of Independence, gave every indication that these documents were all-inclusive. And if not the totally correct interpretation, then they should be all inclusive.

The main legal problem with slavery was that as late as 1857, the US Supreme Court ruled that slaves were not citizens, and as slaves or freed slaves, could not be citizens. The Court also ruled that slaves were property, and that Congress had no Constitutional authority to pass anti-slavery legislation.

The "nuts and bolts" of any "freedom" process, of course would have to be planned out. Clearly, no matter how adamant a person might be about abolishing slavery, a mass end to it would hurt the whole nation. It should be noted that the time period here is before the US Civil War.

There were many ways that abolishing slavery could be accomplished. When Great Britain abolished slavery in the West Indies, the slave owners were compensated by the Government. Lincoln was aware of this and thought it was a possible solution.

However, as slavery became abhorrent in Great Britain & France as example, they had no problem of making whole nations of peoples their "slaves" as they were colonizing the under developed nations of the world. It took France until 1962, to "give up" Algeria".

The extremely large number of slaves in the USA, as per the 1860 census, totaled at least 4 to 4.5 million slaves. This included Kentucky, Maryland. Delaware, Washington DC and Missouri. Such a large number would require a "planned" method of ending slavery.

Other anti slavery abolitionists thought that slavery was against the will of God. The problem with that line of thinking was that in both the Old & New Testaments of the Bible, slavery was not condemned per say. Of course peoples that were enslaved by ancient Roman conquests, as one example, believed that having been placed into slavery by another nation, was wrong.Ancient Rome was just one of the many ancient civilizations that had slavery.

As an aside, the Bible even informs Jewish people how to treat their slaves. As might be expected, the Bible sets standards of "good" treatment of slaves and when slaves should be given their freedom. In some passages in the Bible, Jews are informed on how to treat their slaves that were Jewish.

The Biblical theme of the anti slavery abolitionists doesn't exactly hold water.

There was another problem associated with slavery that cannot be overlooked and needs to be placed in this answer. In the antebellum years, most Americans believed that freed slaves could not have the same status as other Americans.

Many Northern States that did not allow slavery, had numerous laws retricting freed slaves that did not allow them to vote or hold public office.

One of the first drafts of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, had a clause that required sending freed slaves to a colony in Africa (Liberia became one such place ) was mandatory. Many anti-slavery people did not believe that the two races could or should live together.

Answer 4

Because they thought it was wrong to not even consider them people and that they were beaten and hurt by the slave owners. People who wanted slavery to end were called abolitionists.

Answer 5

Because the cotton-gin wasn't invented till 1793.

This created the huge cotton trade in the South.