Dominant Themes in Our History

I would say one of the most dominant themes in history from 1607-1861 is slavery. Slavery has brought diversity into America. When slavery was more prominent, it was how the southern economy did not crash. It is how white men grew and sold crops to support their families. Slavery is known as the cause of the civil war. Another dominant theme, is Bleeding Kansas. Bleeding Kansas began before the civil war in America. It foreshadows what is to come for America. You had senators and congressmen fighting. Southern and Northern senators and congressmen didn't agree on many different things. It was just the beginning of a major war. Abolitionism was feared by citizens living in the south. They feared that abolitionism would come to dominate national politics. Some abolitionists became so upset with the Whigs that they created their own anti-slave party. The Dred Scott decision said that blacks could not be citizens of the United States. The south did not like this, because they would not have as many votes. Slaveowners could influence their own slaves votes.p causing their party to win. As slavery was coming to an end, enslaved men headed north on the underground railway to escape slavery. Some were successful and others were not. Slaveowners would look through a paper and see slaves that had been found. In the paper was very vague descriptions of these slaves that had been found. If a slaveowner was missing a slave, he could easily say any one of these found slaves were his. There were many other major themes in our history but these are the five I chose