Harper

7 Pages 1858 Words

In the 1850’s, the matter of slavery was beginning to separate the United States, forcing people to side with either the North, which was for the elimination of slavery, or with the South, which had far more need of slaves. In the North, abolitionist groups were becoming more and more adamant that the slaves be set free immediately without compensation to their owners, while the Southerners were growing increasingly resolute that no one would force them to release them before they were ready and willing to do so.
Five years prior to the raid of Harper’s Ferry, the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act passed by Congress broadened the gap between the two opposing sides. In 1854, Kansas and Nebraska were still territories of the United States that had been obtained from France in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. This statute declared that the settlers of these regions could determine for themselves whether or not to allow slavery. The passage of this piece of legislation ignored the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had allowed the practice of slavery in Missouri and any new territories south of the 36° 30’ latitude line. Both Kansas and Nebraska were above that line, and clearly should have been automatically declared free regions. Opponents of slavery were furious at this blatant disregard of the Missouri Compromise, which had been such an important law because both the North and South feared that the other would become more powerful through the addition of new territories adhering to their especial stance on slavery. For the past thirty-four years, this act had prevented slavery from spreading into the North, and once the law had been passed over due to the efforts of Southern legislators, what was to stop it from taking over the nation?
Enraged abolitionists made the decision to converge their efforts on Kansas in an attempt to save it from becoming part of the slave-state group. Their violent undertaking, and the fight of the Sout...