American History

Having received intense and enormous attention in research work, it is evident that the American Civil War had a lot to do with the ideology of free labor. Historiographical debates covering issues to do with the then political, cultural and social environment have sparked a lot of controversy as regard to the role each institution played with respect to the civil war. It is worth noting that in the America of 1850s, there were two opposing forces in the political and demographic arena the pro-slavery Democrats or southerners and the anti-slavery Republicans or southerners (Foner 3). A number of studies have associated the war with a conspiracy furthered by the abolitionists or the proslavery people (George 27). Thus the catalyst of the war has been linked to either the blundering generation (revisionist) or the irrepressible conflict- notion representing the intellectual and social divergences were existing between the south and the north. According to Donald stokes, the 1850s America depicts a period in which the political history of America was founded all in the name of an ideological focus centered on the issue of labor (Klein and Hariet 137).

From a wider perspective, the issue of labor particularly slave labor was a core activity in the events of this period due to its potential impact on the constitutional, political and economic consequences. The two conflicting sides held irreconcilable ideas which if had been resolved carefully would not have led to the war. The north on one side sought the end slavery and materialism as an illustration of an indeed civilized America (Avery 87). On the other side, the northerners held the notion of free labor as their main ideology. According to Foner, the ideology was just but an ante-bellum justification of the northerners rather than a work attitude. The northerners based on the notion of free labor to critique the south who were quite different to them if not inferior. For instance, during an endorsement rally for Lincoln in the 1860s, Carl Schurz a republican orator put it that, the republican stand before the country not only as an anti slavery party, but empathically as the party of free labour11)to make labor honorable is the object and aim of the Republican Party.(Foner pp. 11-13).

These statements were just but mere appeals by the republicans for the support of Lincoln from the laboring society. The notion of free labor represented the Republican Party as the perfect example of a coherent social welfare outlook aimed at the good of the society. This ideology was by far an illustration of the superiority of the norths social structure as an expanding capitalistic and dynamic society which relied on the opportunities and dignity it provided to the laborers (Foner 17).

At the heart of the ante-bellum political and cultural structure of the north, was the theme of labor dignity. According to Tocqueville, all aspects of work were considered and treated with all the dignity. For instance, the declaration of the fourth-of-July denotes the nobleness of the dignity of labor. The ideology was applied both in political pronouncements and treaties as a basis for all value. Northerners credited labor for the rapid economic growth and a capital precursor. Nobility of labor was a key factor in establishing a consensus between the conservatives and radicals or between both former Democrats and Whigs. This dignity was the major theme for unity in America. However, the antislavery slogan of labor dignity was not essentially a republican conception but an already existing American culture existing given that most Americans had come from protestant background which practiced nobility labor in their the faith. The notion of free labor was meant to ensure the economic independence of the middle class people was achieved (Klein and Harriet 140). According to the republicans, the people of the northern America society illustrated better the philosophy of free labor as the ideology was treated as a reality. The republicans hence held that there was a slave power which had been conspired to control the government and that it was now in the position of perverting the federal constitution to for its own sake (George 67).  According to Foner, the republicans now believed that there developed two antagonistic civilizations which were struggling for control of the Americas political structure.

As a rule, the southern slaves were not entitled to any education. The enslave people had no rights whatsoever in the eyes of their masters. Unlike in the north, the ideology of free labor did not exist in the south. The south was a rapidly growing economy given that cotton production was at its peak in the 1850s (Avery 92).  Production of cotton in the south was increasing at a rapid rate in the south hence increasing the appetite for slaves and in turn the slave trade. Despite the republicans critique of the souths slavery, slave trade rose to become one of the most profitable trade in the south outdoing tobacco which had been a stable commodity. Among the developments in the south that increased slave trade, were the discovery of the cotton gin and the purchase of Louisiana (Francis and Randall 157). Due to such developments it was hard for black men to be free in the south. Irrespective of the Missouri compromise, free men in the south could still be captured, and enslaved. By the 1940s, they slave trade was more than the ever following the increased cotton exports to the rest of the world. To bridge the gap for increased demand, the southern farmers had to increase production hence they went forth to obtain slaves from the north by enslaving the free black men from both the northern south (Klein and Harriet 93). By 1841, kidnapping of the free black men in the north was prevalent. The free blacks both in the north and south were considered a great threat to the slaveholders as they were potential allies to the fugitive slaves and opponents to the Americas goal of maintaining slavery among the whites only (Foner 268). Some free mixed race black men were also slave holders. Here, slave labor was not regarded noble despite its contribution to the economy rather the southerners perceived that it could devalue the whites free labor if abolished.

About 50 of black slaves in the south were slave workers in the cotton fields of the white. Others worked in tobacco and sugar fields while the rest worked as domestic workers. Slaves were the major driving force in the souths economy. The democratic south was a pro-slavery and did not uphold the Montessori compromise that had been adopted to promote balance and dignity of labor (Klein and Harriet 147). The introduction of wheat farming increased the demand for slaves hence leading to the compromise of free labor for slavery. Dignity of labor was nothing not the sort in the south because as the south had enforced black laws to deny nobility to the slave labor.  Foner, (281) notes that even following the aftermath of the civil war, the ideology of free labor was not quite clear to the blacks in South America. Even though the north was a free state, the farmers and entrepreneurs were the only free people (Klein and Harriet 149). For instance, about half the population of the Northerners was working as wage earners rather than independent laborers and this did not even improve after the civil war not even for most American men. In the south, the situation was worse the blacks victory over slavery, as the southern whites resulted into violent movements such as the Ku Klax Klan to continue enslaving the blacks and deny the notion of free labor.