American History: Slave Power Conspiracy
Slave power conspiracy refers to the power the Southern United States was trying to gain over the Federal government and make slavery legal and universal all over the country from the 1840s to 1850s (Neklason, 2020). This is why the civil war was on the rise since the South had created an image of slavery over the entire country and the government in terms of glorification. This paper aims to analyze the same lionizing of the South of the slave power, how slave power rose by gaining strength from this system via the Three-Fifths clause, and how enslaved Black people reacted towards the slave power and its so-called glory.
South, which was constantly in the struggle to legalize slavery on a mass level, was telling stories that slavery provided those individuals the lifestyle that they could not have imagined building for themselves otherwise in freedom (Neklason, 2020). They had food and a home of great quality that the enslaved people would have no reason left to ask for their liberty.
South was spreading the images to convince the rest of the country, which even Abraham Lincoln was not ready to take, that slavery was the only solution for the betterment of all citizens. Lincoln wrote in his book House Divided that it was a powerful plot to nationalize slavery with the help of this conspiracy. In contrast, the word conspiracy is strictly used against the mechanisms that certain parties within the country were used to hurt political stability and the American pledge of independence (Epp, 2004).
On the back, Southern America was doing so to use slavery for their good. They wanted to keep slavery so that the slaves kept working on their farms and kept working for them to provide Americans with food and plantations (Wright, 2020). The massive tobacco and rice productions were only possible with the use of large slavery abuse to keep their South economy running (Wright, 2020).
The brutality of slavery was also seen in cotton production, leading to the Souths inability to hire free laborers. South kept negating the allegations of transportation infrastructure and inciting inelasticity of supply within the region to make their side of the economy strong (Wright, 2020). This situation created a high conflict of interest of what Southern America with new colonies settling in wanted and the rest of the country where Lincoln was strongly opposed to what the South was up to. A clear-cut major tension in the political and economic interests of the two sides and that of the slaves who were not willing to live a merciless slave life gave rise to the civil war.
To release this tension, Southern and Northern government created a legislative bond in 1787 called the Three-Fifth clause, in which additional representation of slaves was allowed in the House of Representatives compared with the Free states (Ohline, 1971). The Southern side used this power to abuse their upper hand control further as they wanted to rule with their slave power over the rest of the country.
In return, they did not treat their slaves as the slave owners did not want their slaves to escape. Slave catchers were appointed to prevent them from breaking free from the chains of slavery and capture them back (Ohline, 1971)....
…(Sweet, 2022).
Through armed rebellion, nine slave revolts were organized among the enslaved Black people who wanted a revolt against the Southern United States (Sweet, 2022). Looting properties and use of weapons were open demonstrations by the armed rebellions to overthrow slavery and its widespread power conspiracy (Sweet, 2022).
Not only that, but the reactions from Southern enslavers were also blunt as they captured and hanged some of the fleers and participants of armed rebellions to give the other enslaved people a lesson for the future.
The powerful men in the Southern US wanted to exert their influence and maintain slave power so that their economic gains kept coming. They kept using their government powers to sustain the slave power so that their inherited overrepresentation, which was not possible otherwise, could be used to maintain the domination. The Northern Territories were unhappy with what the Southern side was conspiring to gain ultimate power over the rest of the country. It seemed not only the production benefits over the fields and tobacco and rice plantations but also the government held by the Southern side so that a universal acceptance of slavery could be made possible.
The free slaves were always in fear of being captured and becoming victims to ruthless behavior than before by the enslavers, while the enslaved Blacks were in a survival war with themselves. On the other hand, the federal government was combating the slavery issue for years through Three-Fifth Clause and Fourteenth Amendment later so that, in one way or another, the unjustified Southern hold could be stopped and humanity could be saved by freeing enslaved people with the safety of American dignity…
