In the early 1700s, America began using slaves, and this continued for over two and a half centuries. The slaves who were used at the time for tobacco plants and later for cotton were mostly from Africa. The growing demand for cotton led many Southern slave owners to begin cotton farming, which made slaves and cotton the basis of the Southern economy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The abolitionist movement in the late 1800s began to divide the United States over the issue of slavery. Slavery was outlawed in all new Western states as part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The South believed this to be a threat to slavery itself. An 1857 Supreme Court case ruled that blacks were not citizens there because runaway slaves in the north were still the property of their owners and should be returned to them. This case was often known as the Dred Scott decision. Many Northerners breathed new life into the struggling abolition program because of this lawsuit. In 1860, a member of the anti-slavery Republican Party became president, he was known as Abraham Lincoln. His election convinced many people in the South that slavery could not expand to the new territories acquired by the United States and that it could eventually be abolished. The Civil War was precipitated by eleven southern states attempting to secede from the union. The famous Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln during the war and freed all slaves in all parts of the country who were then in rebellion. This contributed to European interference on the southern side and also freed military and naval officers to return runaway slaves to their owners, but only after winning the war. The next passage in the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was the release of American slaves. The last mention of this issue in Parliament was decades before, but in 1791 there was a vote on abolition and 163 members voted against it. For moral reasons, very few MPs dared to defend trade, even during the first debates. They discussed many financial and political reasons for pursuing the project. Many special interests consisted of people who profited from the trade and the entire plantation system was also at stake if the trade ended. One MP said that "the property of West Indians is at stake and although men may be generous with their own property, they should not be generous with that of others." » (Historynet.com) France could gain an economic and naval advantage because of the abolition of British trade. Englishmen like John Locke, Daniel Defoe, John Wesley and Samuel Johnson had already debated against slavery and trade before the parliamentary discussions. Dr. Johnson once gave the toast at a celebration in Oxford: “To the next Negro insurrection in the West Indies.” » (Historynet.com) The first group organized to fight slavery emerged amid scattered protests. Both sides faced expulsion if they still owned slaves in 1776. British Quakers established the Anti-Slavery Committee in 1783, which played an important role in abolition. The team began by distributing pamphlets to Parliament and the public on slavery. An essential aspect of the abolitionist plan became Thomas Clarkson's investigation and investigations into the..