American Civil War Was Inevitable

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In my opinion the civil war was inevitable. Many important events took place before the civil war actually began. The first shots at Fort Sumter on April 12 1861, the Civil War has been regarded as one of the most influential and significant events in the history of the United States. At this point nobody knows for sure weither or not the civil war was inevitable but I do think the events that took place before the civil war caused everything. When it comes to dealing with the question of whether the American Civil War was inevitable or not, I immediately think of the pros and cons that resulted in serious events on the outbreak of this conflict. During this time it is essential to clarify the terms Northerners and Southerners mean. Both the …show more content…

The Mason-Dixon line severed the slave-holding states of the South from the free states of the North. One of the leading conflicts between the North and South was slavery. The issue of slavery has been thought of as the number one reason and principle behind the Civil War. This might not be true in itself, but in my opinion slavery was the leading conflict that caused the Civil War. Slavery was central to the Southern economy, and without it, it could never compete with the industrial North. Although the value of agricultural products was almost equal, Northern manufactures, railroad systems, urban development and commercial profits far surpassed any economic advancement the South had. The amount of capital the slave states invested in cotton doubled between 1840 and 1860, which was greater than the rate of the actual contemporary population growth. Slave labor was the only means of equaling the national rate of profit, and making it more competitive against the rapidly advancing North. Slavery brought most of the profit for Southern plantation owners. Slavery, however, was not the only issue that Americans worried about in the 1850s, nor were the only significant lines of division between Northern and Southern states. America was not unfamiliar with slavery and

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