Origins of the sectional crisis of the 1850s Slavery: the south’s peculiar institution” •Slavery by the numbers -Just wanted to settle concerns of northern democrats about the south wanting to go to war -David Wilmow had complex motives to put southern democrats on record, saying that this is not a war to acquire slavery it was a war to realize America’s manifest destiny oHe came to distrust them and tried to put them on the spot, oIt became clear that slavery was to blame for the problems congress were having- it was the driver for much national political debate oSlavery in 1820 above the mason Dixon line, the northern states have less than 10%, and the southern have more than 50% oBy 1860 there were almost 4 million slaves, most had been born in the US -Abolitionists insisted that the slave system was irrational, inefficient and was doomed to a natural death so why not push this along oThey produced a variety of arguments with little hard evidence o
