Proof of the Hidden Ones: 160 Years of Witnesses Against America By: Thomas L Smith
Proof of the Hidden Ones: 160 Years of Witnesses Against America By: Thomas L Smith It’s fair to say that slavery meant more to the Southern slaveholding states than remaining in the Union , especially when the issue is understood as the expansion of slavery into new territories , not merely the preservation of slavery where it already existed.. South Carolina’s declaration complained that the South would be “excluded from the common territory” and that the federal government was becoming hostile to slavery. Mississippi stated even more directly: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery” and complained that antislavery forces sought to confine slavery by denying its expansion. 1. The issue was not only “keeping slavery.” It was expansion. The Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812 expansion era, Texas annexation, the Mexican Cession, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act all fed the same national question: Would new American territory become free territor...