5. Examine the politics of race in the North and South in the decades preceding the Civil War. How did Americans justify slavery in a land of freedom?...

5. Examine the politics of race in the North and South in the decades preceding the Civil War. How did Americans justify slavery in a land of freedom? What role did the growing anti-slavery movement play in questioning the nation's commitment to slavery? What issues brought slavery to the center of American politics by the 1850s?