The "Elephant in the Room"

An "elephant in the room" is a big issue that everyone knows about, but no one wants to talk about or address it in any way.  During the 19th century, and especially during the 1850s, slavery was a major "elephant in the room."  The government of the United States knew that slavery was a problem, but no one seemed to want to fix it.  However, as 1860 grew nearer, no one could seem to avoid talking about slavery any more, there were many outbreaks between the northern and southern states regarding it.  Recently in history class, we have studied these events leading up to the Civil War, and why slavery is now considered the "elephant in the room" during the 1850s.  As we learned about each event, we used it to create a timeline on an app by describing it and adding a picture and date.  My timeline of these events is pictured below, and it shows each event, along with the descriptions of each.  

These two images show a timeline of the events leading up to the Civil War.
I created this during class on the app "Timeline."

Some of the events leading to the Civil War were the Compromise of 1850, the Gadsden Purchase, the Caning of Charles Sumner, and the Dred Scott Decision.  The Compromise of 1850 consisted of 5 parts.  The goal of this compromise was to to even out the number of slave and free states so that there would be no arguing between the north and the south.  The new territories of Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah were organized without mention of slavery, while  California was made a red state.  Texas was made a slave state, and was given 10 million dollars to help pay off its debt to Mexico.  Slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, although slavery was still permitted, and the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, which stated that all citizens must help recover fugitive slaves, and that the fugitives were denied the right to a jury trial.  Despite these many measures that were taken to prevent arguments between the slave and free states, peace did not last very long.  Another important event, the Gadsden Purchase (1853), helped pro-slavery supporters.  In this purchase, the U.S. government bought a small strip of land in southwestern United States for $10 million.  Soon after, they turned this land into a transcontinental railroad, which was used by the southern states to transport their slaves and goods out west.  The southern states hoped that by settling first in the unorganized territory created by the Compromise of 1850, these states would turn into slave states.  

http://www.edline.net/files/_BYIYQ_/0c8709831428126f3745a49013852ec4/Elephant_in_the_Room_Lesson.pdf

Later on in the 1850s, the Caning of Charles Sumner and the Dred Scott Decision occurred.  In 1856, Senator Charles Sumner, a powerful anti-slavery voice, gave a speech, which criticized the south for forcing slavery on Kansas territory.  During the speech, titled "The Crime Against Kansas," Preston Brooks approached Sumner and beat him with his cane, inflicting permanent injuries.  This incident proves that slavery caused the most civilized men to resort to violence.  The Dred Scott Decision of 1857 was a court case in which an enslaved man living in Missouri filed suit against his owner.  This man, Dred Scott claimed that him and his wife were free because they had once lived with their owner in states where slavery was illegal.  Unfortunatley, the jury ruled against the Scotts, claiming that "As Scott was a slave when taken into the State of Illinois by his owner, and was there held as such, and brought back in that charcter, his staus, as free or slave, depended on the laws of Missouri, and not of Illinois...."  The result of this case was not fair, and led to more tension between the north and the south.  Slavery was the "elephant in the room" in the 1850s because it was a major problem that was not being addressed, even as these horrible, violent events were taking place before citizens' eyes.

http://www.edline.net/files/_BYIYQ_/0c8709831428126f3745a49013852ec4/Elephant_in_the_Room_Lesson.pdf

Source of quotation:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2933t.html