Student Question
What events increased southern fears of northern hostility towards their lifestyle?
Quick answer:
Incidents and events that played a primary role in increasing southern fears concerning growing northern hostility to their way of life included the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the vote in favor of bringing Kansas into the union as a free state, John Brown's anti-slavery Harper Ferry raid, and the election of Abraham Lincoln.
One important event that became a catalyst for the anti-slavery movement was the 1852 publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It galvanized many in the North to demand the immediate liberation of all slaves. The immense popularity of this book, a runaway best seller, increased white southern fears that their way of life was under threat. The South increasingly moved away from a moderate stance in which they accepted that slavery would fade away over time and began to aggressively defend it as a positive institution that helped blacks.
Another threat to the South was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act left it up to settlers to vote on whether their territories should come into the United States as free states or slave states. Initially interpreted as a blow by Northerners, who wanted slavery prohibited in new states, it became a threat to the South when anti-slavery forces won the vote,...
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not once, but twice, leading eventually to Kansas's inclusion in the Union as a free state.
John Brown's October 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry, which he hoped would start a slave rebellion, also frightened white southerners and increased tensions between north and south.
Finally, Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 by a wide margin also stoked fears that white southerners would lose their way of life. Southerners were deeply antagonistic to the Republican party's opposition to slavery. Lincoln's election became the final catalyst to southern secession.
What event heightened Southern fears of Northern hostility towards their way of life?
There are many events from the antebellum period that did this. The one that did it most dramatically was John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, VA and the northern reaction to that raid.
In this raid, Brown intended to use weapons from the armory to ignite a slave rebellion. If he had succeeded, his actions would clearly have led to the deaths of many Southerners. Many Northerners approved of his actions and saw him as a martyr. This indicated to Southerners that the North hated its way of life so much that Northerners were willing to praise someone who was trying to cause the deaths of many in the South.