Elephant in the Room

     During the 19th century slavery was considered to be "the elephant in the room' meaning that everyone knew it was their, but nobody addressed the problem. There were two sides in this slavery debate, proslavery which was normally located in the south and antislavery which was normally located in the north. To learn more about this huge debate that separated the country in two, our class looked at many events that occurred during this time and constructed a timeline showing antislavery and proslavery events. After seeing the information displayed in the timeline, we saw how slavery truly was the elephant in the room since the U.S. addressed which states slavery is legal in and not the issue of slavery itself.

     The first event shown on the timeline that showed how slavery was "the elephant in the room" was the Compromise of 1850. California requests to join the Union as a free state, this request would put an end to the balance of free states and slaves so Henry Clay proposed a 5-part compromise. This compromise allowed California to be admitted as a free state, but also allowed the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah to be organized with out the mention of slavery. This means that the decision of whether or not these states would be free would be decided later by the inhabitants when that territory applies for statehood. The population will be allowed to vote inferior of slavery or against it.

     After the Gadsden Purchase was made in 1853, a southern transcontinental railroad was made. This make it easier to transport proslavery people from the south to these territories which slavery will later be decided when the territory applies for statehood. These people will populate these terrorizes and when it came time to vote for a free or lave state, the proslavery side would have an advantage. The reasoning for this purchase was that the land was extremely flat and easy to lay railroad track on.

     It is clear in both these events that the issue of slavery is extremely political. Antislavery activists are focusing more on getting states to be free states instead of working on abolishing the issue all together. These events help us see that the issue was never truly dressed which eventually lead to extreme violence between the Union and Confederacy.