Why was the issue of slavery debated each time more territory was added to the united states ?
Answers
Answer:
There was a delicate balance of slave and non-slave states leading up the war. Each time new territory was added there was great debate over whether slavery would be allowed as if one supporting side became too powerful they could eventually garner enough support for their side of the conflict to influence the whole of the U.S
Explanation:
The first formal protests against slavery in the colonies of North America were heard in the late seventeenth century, at the same time that the system was taking root along the continent's eastern seaboard. In 1688, a handful of German Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, published a petition condemning the trading and owning of black slaves. They characterized enslavement as unlawful kidnapping and defended the seized Africans' right to armed rebellion. They asserted further that slavery was contrary to the golden rule of treating others as one would wish to be treated. In 1693, another Pennsylvania Quaker named George Keith (1639-1716) published an exhortation to his co-religionists urging them to cleanse themselves of the sin of slave holding. In making these arguments, Quakers in Pennsylvania echoed their fellow members of the Society of Friends in England and the Caribbean.
At about the same time, a Massachusetts Puritan also published a tract critical of slavery. In 1700, the eminent colonial jurist Samuel Sewall (1652-1730) published The Selling of Joseph. The title referred to the biblical Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. Sewall, who had been a member of the court presiding over the Salem witch trials, argued that all humans are equal under God's love. Meshing biblical concepts with natural law, Sewall contended that all men are entitled to life and liberty.
These isolated protests made little impact. Quaker leaders failed to act on the Germantown protest or on Keith's exhortation. According to Samuel Sewall, his thoughts about slavery met only with hostility. A fellow Puritan judge, John Safin (1632-1710), published a rebuttal to Sewall that argued that the Bible explicitly sanctioned slavery. Safin argued further that humans exist in a hierarchy that puts some in positions of power over others; slavery is simply the lowest rung on this ladder.