During the time period of slavery in America the white slave owners would have sex with their black female slaves, and the result often was children being born. Many slave owners did not help their mixed blooded mulatto children; they labeled these children black and let their black mothers raise them. These white looking children were considered slaves just like their mothers. The one drop blood rule that Southern whites followed said, that if you have one drop of black blood in you then you are black, no matter how much white blood and genetics you have in you.
Many people have been taught that because blacks were enslaved, this motivated the abolitionist and other Northern whites to put an end to slavery.
This is only partially true, some Northern whites and abolitionists wanted to help free blacks from slavery, but the major reason that motivated the Northern States to end slavery was because they saw mulattoes in slavery. Now the abolitionists were armed with evidence that white looking people were in slavery, they used this as a motivator to help inspire many Northern whites to go to civil war against the South.
Many whites who were journalists, religious ministers, travelers, business owners, etc went to the South and, they were horrified when they saw mulattoes who looked white and not fully black locked in slavery right along with blacks. Journalists, writers, travelers, and business owners started reporting what they saw, and when the Northern whites heard and read about mulattoes who looked white being held in slavery they started to dislike the Southern Slave owners and the South in general. The fear that people who could pass for white were held in slavery motivated the North to go to war with the South.
The North believe that if a white person was accused of being a run-away slave who escaped from the South, and went North with no one at that particular moment to vouch for the person and say, this is a white person I know his or her family — that white person could be taken into slavery. The North passed laws that prohibited (prevented) taking people into slavery without a trial (if a person looks white and is accused of being a slave (Mulatto) who is passing for white the person could not be taken into slavery until the evidence was presented).
There had to be a legal hearing to verify the person is a mulatto slave who is passing for white. This also gave whites who were not mulattoes but accused of being run-away slaves the opportunity to verify that they were white by bringing in witnesses like family, friends, employers, and neighbors to vouch and verify that they were white and not mulattoes passing for white. Also later on the North passed laws that said — when a slave from the South makes it to a Northern state they were free and no longer a slave.
As previously stated, one of the major reasons the civil war started was because mulattoes who were in slavery. Yes there were other factors that helped motive the Northern whites to go to war with the Southern States — but the reality of white looking slaves was a major factor. And, it was the strongest factor of all factors.
Lawrence R. Tenzer Wrote a book titled “The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War: A New Look at the Slavery Issue”
This book explores the issue of white slaves and how these white looking mulatto slaves enslavement actually motivated the collective moral consciousness’s of the Northern Whites to go to civil war with the South — and end slavery.
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