Ideas such as moral suasion and total emancipation were hotly debated, in part due to the religious movement that was occurring at the same time. The market was growing very rapidly, and the invention of the steamboat and the Erie Canal only made trade more accessible and convenient. The antebellum period foreshadowed an American future in which slavery had been abolished and trade was more accessible. Together, these events strengthened the American both morally and economically. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1837, “We will walk on our own two feet; we will work with our hands; we will speak with our minds. Citizens of the United States recognized the value of freedom and independence, but during the antebellum period and before the Civil War, many Americans had to decide who should and who should not be