Reasons and Benefits for the Ratification of the 13th Amendment (Essay Sample)

REASONS AND BENEFITS FOR RATIFICATION OF THE 13TH AMENDMENT
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Introduction
The thirteenth amendment to the United States Constitution declared the end of any form of slavery or servitude unless it was applied as punishment for a committed crime. This amendment was passed on January 31st, 1865 by the Congress and ratified by the states on December 6ththe same year. The 13th amendment ratification has an interesting history behindis an interesting one. Before the emergent of civil war in 1861, the 13th amendment was being passed for entirely different purpose; it was ratified to perpetuate slavery instead of ending it. The ratification was narrowly approved by both houses because of the huge divisive opinion between the northern and southern representatives. But during the civil wars, the version of the 13th amendment that ended slavery was when the southern reprehensive were absent in for the debate in the congress. The North had its own reasons and perceived benefits that made them advocate for ratification of this amendment. The major reason was that marked the end of slavery and the beginning of the equality. Also ratification paved for the infamous civil rights movement. The paper seeks to establish the perceived reasons and benefits, both social and economic, which made the Northern to support ratification of the 13th amendment despite the resistance from the South.
Reasons for Ratification of the 13th Amendment
The reasons that propelled the northern to ratify the 13th amendment were mainly economic and partially social. To begin with, one of the economic reason was that the northern saw thatthe slavery act was posing an unfair competition to the white laborers. Therefore, the northern whites became the antislaveries when they realize the spread of slavery through the country will snatch their jobs. This worried the white because as employers were finding slave’s labor cheaper and readily available compared to the labor from the white laborers. Additionally, the northern also opt to end slavery because they perceived it has inefficient and unproductive as the northern climate is majorly winter, an aspect that made the Northern part less agrarian compared to the southern. Therefore, there was no intensive agriculture activities to keep the slavery busy.[Vorenberg, Michael. 2011. Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 27.] [Vorenberg, Michael. 2011. Final Freedom: The Civil War, the Abolition of Slavery, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 45]
Also, the northern saw slavery as a threat to republicanism. This was because some few southern moguls were the slave owners who seem to control and manipulate the country’s economy through the labor of their enslaved workforce. The northerners were not used to live in a society where all labors was done by slaves like in the southern regions. Some Southerner leaders like Thomas Jefferson were big slave owners who was in constant perpetuating the practice of slavery. This brought a crisis between the southerners and the northerners where the latter had a conscience about the morality of slavery. The northerners saw it possible and economical to abolish slavery so that they can reduce the labor competition from the cheap one offered by the slaves. The bottom line was to boost their living standards by offering the northerners moguls well paid labors.[Samito, Christian G. 2015. Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment. location Carbondale, IL: SIU Press, 18.]
In social perspective the Northerners saw slavery as an immoral and brutal practice and a thing they could not perpetuate. The North demonstrated their denunciation to slavery by blaming the south to all the woes in the country specifically the civil wars between them and the troubles of African Americans in the North. In other words, the toleration and condoning of slavery in the south was the primary trigger of the civil rights movements that was brought by the free colored people in the North. The northerners were able to convince themselves of the Southerners immorality through any form of excuse and blame that paints the South in a negative way. This approach enable the southerners to justify the disapproval of the original 13th amendment.[Oakes, James. 2013. Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 87.]
From a political standpoint, slavery offered the North with the substantiation they looked-for to battle against the South. Lincoln, who was the president at that time. Lincoln found slavery abolition as greatest strategy to fight the South, who were the heavy dependent of slavery. With regard to the segregation, oppression and discrimination that was impacted to the slaves, it amounted to a moral issue which triggered string of emotions within the people and the North capitalized on this to crusade to the people against the South. With the aid of the 13th amendment and the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, the North managed to present their alternate solution to slavery by proposing a single, united and industrialized America that observes equality to all colors. Therefore the 13th amendment was prompted by the North’s need to create a unionized America. However, abolishing slavery was not Lincoln’s primary objective, rather he was more determined to restore the rift between the south and the north. For example, it is on record that Lincoln openly stated through a letter to Horace Greeley, founder of the New York Tribune that his key mission was to reconcile the Union even of it would take to either liberating or not freeing the slaves to restore the union. Therefore, the cause of the civil wars was more centered on the desire to save the union rather than abolishing slavery that was prevalence in the south.[Grams, Mart. 2013. The Great Experiment. Raleigh,NC: Lulu.com, 57] [Waldstreicher, David. 2010. Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 34]
As much as many would want to believe that slavery was the major cause of civil wars between the North and South, the truth is that conquering was the major reason; desire to be the leading arm in the region due to economic suspicion. The suspicion between the south and North can be date back in history even before the nation was born. In era of Lincoln, the North made effort to propose peace but the South was adamant due to their strong military and declined to establish a common ground. Slavery was a common factor between parties as their economy were directly tied to slavery. Even the North were not genuine antislavery but they had acquired civilization ahead of the North as far as human rights is concerned. In other words, the South had discovered the benefits of slavery at the time when the North was done with it and noted its negative impacts to humanity. For these reason, many northerners wanted the controversial practice to end. The two regions had a conflict in cultures. The South kept own embracing slavery, a culture they had borrowed from older British aristocracy model that believed in using servants, estates anddepending labor in the industrial and agriculture operations. This pushed the South to the need of expanding their influence by trying to colonize new states and capturing more slaves On the contrary, the North perceived the South gentry’ model as barbaric and inhuman at a period where human interpersonal relationship had improved. This should help in suppressing the Southerner’s oppression and barbarism treatment to the African American in the name of slavery.[Holcombe, Randall G. 2012. From Liberty to Democracy: The Transformation of American Government. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 102.] [Samito, Christian G. 2015. Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment. location Carbondale, IL: SIU Press, 93.]
Additionally, economic remained the source of conflicts as the South had good climates to cultivate cotton. The cotton cultivation grew tremendously and become more profitable, prompting the wealthy cotton planters to look for new land towards the south to expand their agriculture. This feuded conflicts with the North as the South attempted to colonize new states and put more slaves to work. So, the push for ratification of the 13th amendment helped to calm the conflicts as there were no more slavery, Subsequently, the two regions managed to establish a common ground and create an industrialized America.[Berkin, Carol, Christopher Miller, Robert Cherny, and James Gormly. 2014. Making America: A History of the United States, Volume II: Since 1865. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 65]
Another reason that made the North to ratify the 13th amendment was the harbinger that the slaves could rebel. Both the North and South were preoccupied with constant fears that the slaves would push for their freedom at one point. This possibility of the slaves to rebel looked more imminent as there were a couple of those who were freemen already and appear to push for liberations through movements. This made the North to be uneasy as were the Southerners. For the fear of slave rebellion, the North attempted to prevent slave insurgences as well as defeating the southerners’ armies as they were aware slavery interference would undermine their Union restoration goal during the civil wars. Prior to the 13th amendment, all slaves who attempted to escape from the Union lines were captured and taken back to their masters in conventionality with the 1850’s Fugitive Slave Act. However the efforts to prevent ...