The Elephant in the Room

In our last lesson of the causes of the civil war, we discussed a huge topic in America that can be called an "elephant in the room" which basically is about a topic that is large enough to matter but is ignored, and this lesson had to do with slavery in the early 19th century. We were told to answer the following question;"How do we know the debate over slavery was the 'elephant in the room' for American politics in the early 19th century?" In order to better understand this “elephant” we first needed to learn about events that contributed to it, one of which was the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise took place in 1820, and it split apart the 22 states; eleven being slave controlled states and 11 being free states, which gave both sides the same number of votes in the Senate. This Missouri Compromise stated that all states above the 36 degrees latitude line would be free states if they were to form in the future. Sometime around 1849, there was a huge gold rush in California, which caused people to flock there, and eventually it gained enough people to request stateship as a free state In 1950.  However, this caused an unbalance in the senate. so a man named Henry Clay proposed what was called a 5-part compromise. In order to understand what this compromise was, we looked at the article "The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act". This article listed the five parts to the compromise as the following.  The first part of it was that Texas would claim the disputed land and be granted 10 million dollars that it could use to pay off its debt to Mexico, which appeased pro-slavery people because it was further south, leaving a greater chance that it could become a slave state. The second part was the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah would be categorized, but their standing point would be determined by popular vote, and  the decision would be made by the people when they applied for statehood. The third part of the compromise was that slave trading would be removed in the District of Columbia, and even though slavery would still be allowed it satisfied anti-slavery advocates. The fourth part of the compromise was the agreement that California would be admitted as a free state.This, however, imbalanced the senate voting system, so the the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, which required citizens to help recover slaves that fled north, and it denied a fugitive's right to trial.  Not only that, but it made many things easier for slaveowners. Eventually, we were split into groups in order to construct a timeline of all of the events.  The debate over slavery was the 'elephant in the room' because all of the topics discussed had to do with balancing out state power and nothing to do with the s. Slavery was obviously the elephant in the room, and it needed to be a bigger deal to politicians.However, these aren’t the only things that make slavery “the elephant in the room.”

A Timeline of the Elephant in the Room

On the Timeline, we also uncovered more events, such as the Gadsden Purchase, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, The Caning of Charles Sumner, The Dred Scott Decision, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and John Brown's Raid. These events further prove that slavery was the elephant in the room, and was clearly a thing that was an obvious issue but was not discussed enough. The Kansas-Nebraska Act took place in 1854 and made the Missouri Compromise void, meaning that there could be slave states above the previously set line. This act made it easier for southerners to expand slavery northward, which allowed for them to grow more cotton and have more plantations. Another important event was Bleeding Kansas, started by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which resulted in a lot of violence and attacks between pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates. Not only that, but the Caning of Charles Sumner proved that even the most civilized people would fight over slavery laws. In 1856, Senator Charles Sumner delivered a speech called The Crime Against Kansas,and he attacked southerners in this speech for forcing slavery on territories. He also made bold insults against a Senator and a member of the House of Representatives and this senators nephew  was angered by Sumner's remarks and was determined to defend the honor of the south. Two days after Sumner's speech, Brooks approached Sumner at his Senate desk and violently assaulted him with his cane. People across the south voiced their support for Brook, but Northerners were furious. Another event that proved slavery was the elephant in the room was the Dred Scott Decision in 1857. Dred Scott was an enslaved black man living in Missouri. He filed a suit against his owner, and argued that he and his wife were free because they had once lived in states where slavery was illegal, but the Supreme Court ruled against the Scotts, and there were 3 outcomes from the Dred Scott Decision. Slaves, because they were not citizens, were denied the right to sue in court. Enslaved people could not win freedom just by living in a free territory or state, and the Missouri Compromise ruled unconstitutional and all territories were open to slavery, which was a step in the wrong direction for the abolishment of slavery. What they were doing made no sense because the Missouri Compromise in 1820 was made to keep certain states free, but they got rid of the compromise in 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and then decided that  all territories were open to slavery, which shows that people only cared about political arguments and not about the slaves themselves, further proving that slavery was infact the “elephant in the room”

A Before and After Map of the Kansas-Nebraska Act’s effects.