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SouthernParanoia.edited.docxPRE-CIVIL WAR EVENTS IN USA 1
Southern Paranoia
Paranoia is a feeling where victims feel afraid or suspicious that someone is threatening or secretly planning to harm even where there is no evidence. During the slavery era in the United States, the Southerners were positive towards old-way slavery while the north proposed leniency and gradual abolishment of slavery. The difference in views and opinions on slavery created tension and since the southerners were seen as the barriers to the abolishment and containment of slavery, they developed fear and paranoia towards the northerners. One reason that caused fear among the southerners is that while northerners wanted the new states to be free, southerners wanted the new states to be slave states. The anti-slavery literature from the north created fear in the south. Another event was the Wilmot Proviso that outlawed slavery in any states that the USA could seize from Mexico. Although the law was never passed, it created fear in the South that the North was out to block any economic ambition in the South. The Missouri Compromise of 1830 disallowed slavery in the north and this sparked fear in the south that new legislations would outlaw slavery in the south as well (Harrold, 2015).
The differences between the Northern and Southern states over slavery greatly affected the stability of the Democratic Party. Southern Democrats felt and proposed that slave owners had the freedom to take their slaves wherever they wished without limitations. On the other hand, the Northern Democrats were more interested in the power of the United States rather than the power of individual states. The southern Democrats felt that individual states should make their own rules on slavery without interference from the union or other states. However, Northern Democrats favored Union-made legislation to be paramount and above states' laws. The Northern Democrats preferred Stephen Douglas as the party's flag bearer in the 1860 election but the Southerners were opposed to him due to his position on individual states' sovereignty. However, during the second party convention, the southerners walked out of the meeting but Douglas garnered enough votes and was declared the Democratic presidential candidate. Agitated, the Southern Democrats, nominated John C. Breckinridge as their Democratic Party presidential candidate. The third group of Democrats opposed to either Douglas or John as the Democrat candidate broke out and formed the Constitutional Party with John Bell as their preferred candidate. The division weakened the Democratic Party giving the Republican Party an easy win in the 1860 US Presidential election (Scully, 2016).
The Northerners were more rational than southerners. They had agreed to reassess the Missouri Act to avoid being seen as enemies by the Southerners. The southerners were stubborn and rigid and were unwilling to make reasonable decisions (Genovese, 2014). They wanted things to go their way to a point that rather than finding a consensus after Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election, they seceded. However, the Northern too lost their earlier rational approach. They disregarded the opinions and the suggestions of the Southerners, especially concerning slavery. The Northern Democrats could not let go of their ego and invite the southerners for another convention before a common candidate could be nominated. The two sides could no longer listen and understand each other's views and that led to the civil war.
The strategy of the Southerners to promote racial segregation and division by referred white people as superior and black people as inferior was led by the Republican Party that sought to increase its support in the South where the Democratic Party was more popular. White people were regarded as a superior race that was supposed to be on top and that led to the creation of white supremacy movements. This was against Locke's political philosophy and republicanism that was the foundation of the independent United States. Locke argued that all people have rights to life, liberty, and property and that a government belonged to the people and therefore should represent the matters of its people. The southerners denied their slaves the right to liberty and their property. They also mistreated them and the lives of the slaves were at the mercy of their masters. Locke insisted on individual consent in deciding one's life. However, the white slave masters in the south considered themselves superior that their black slaves, and therefore slaves' consent was not required for decisions affecting them to be made. Locke's republicanism pioneered and advocated for equality of all mankind and disregarded monarch and cult figures (Locke, 2015). However, the Southerners viewed white people as a superior race and thus equality could not be achieved.
References
Seliger, M. (2019). The liberal politics of John Locke. Routledge.
Locke, J. (2015). The second treatise of civil government. Broadview Press.
Harrold, S. (2015). The rise of aggressive abolitionism: Addresses to the slaves. University Press of Kentucky.
Genovese, E. D. (2014). The political economy of slavery: Studies in the economy and society of the slave South. Wesleyan University Press.
