The Institution of Slavery

Basically, slavery as an issue in United States was in a continuous divergence with the commencement of the independent ideology of the nation. For that basis, slavery became the vital test of different within the unification of states which were feasible in a democracy taking up liberty of the people. In the middle of the anxiety were the Africans who were enslaved, brought, sold and oppressed as workers on United States territory. The use of slave labor was a popular practice for many in the world, and not only in United States (Fields, 1999).

In United States slavery was a big problem since the very beginning of the nation. As the time United States became independent, some of the people wanted the end of slavery whiles others wanted to continue with it because the earned more profit form exploitation of slaves. Consequently the supporters of slave social class depended on having many people they could feel superior to.

The United States  Constitution - the principle article that explains how the nation is to be run - permitted some states to be free (end  slavery) and some states to hold on to slavery. Numerous laws had been enacted that made slavery legal in different states (south and the Border States) even if it was not legal in others (north) (Fields, 1999).  The renegade Slave Act of 1850 supported a former law of 1793 that made it legal for slave proprietors to get runaway slaves and workers back.

By 1950, more and more slave was trying to flee from slavery by going secretly. Since slavery was still authorized and slaves were taken as property, slave owners could legally follow the fugitive slaves using several means. Slave owners could offer rewards to get information of the escaped slaves which they used to return and imprison slaves.

Overtime slavery in United States was in essence ended by the Civil War - an enormous and destructive war which had many consequences between the United States government, which was supported by non-slave holding of western and northern states, and a union of rebellious southern states, which supported slavery.

The civil war started in 1861 when the southern states saw the need to separate from e United States. The starting occurrence in the civil war was on 12 April, 1861 as a result of clashes by pro-slavery forces on a key symbolic federal site (Berlin, 2004). The destructive civil war went on for four years (1861-1865); it was mostly fought in the southern and led to involved immense damage. Many African Americans engaged in the civil war and several happenings showed them to be good and brave soldiers.

Lincoln's main apprehension at the beginning of the Civil War was to safeguard the union   not to eliminate slavery.   At the first instance Lincoln did not want any slave to join the army union in the civil war because he though it would result to more states separating from the union. However, in March of the year 1992, Lincoln decided to give a plan that entailed freedom of slaves to the congress. He signed the plan that terminated slavery in all the federal states; he also started accepting African-American to the union.  After the sign of the bill, Lincoln gave a preliminary order to liberate free slaves.

On 1^st January, 1863, a final order was given, also known as Emancipation   Proclamation, which was used to strengthen the north war effort and destabilized the southern (Brown, 2001). The Emancipation   upset the southern by discouraging France and Britain from entering the war. These countries depended on the south for the supply of cotton. However due to the Emancipation Proclamation act made the war to fight against slavery, leading to most French and Britain citizens opposing the slavery, giving support to the union.