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Slavery as the major cause of the American Civil War
Underlying causes of civil war
Underlying causes of civil war
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The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor when the Confederate army attacked Union soldier and ended on May 9, 1865 with a Union Victory. There are many events, laws, and people that provoked the Civil War. The two most important causes are slavery and the expansion of the United States causing an unbalance of free and slave states. This essay examines major events that initiated the war starting from the Compromise of 1820 to the election of 1860 and proves how the Civil War was inevitable. After Thomas Jefferson, who served as president from 1801 to 1809, made the Louisiana Purchase on April 30, 1803, the U.S. gained 828 thousand square miles of territory from France. In 1817, the Missouri territory assembly applied for statehood. Missouri was slated to be the first state, other than Louisiana, to be created from the purchase. Considering there was slaves already in Missouri territory, it was clear that Missouri was going to enter the Union as a slave state and have implications on the rest of the new territory from the Louisiana Purchase unless congress opposed it (America Past and Present). Fear began to rise due to the unbalance of free and slave states. Fortunately, the Maine territory was separating from Massachusetts and requested for statehood. Correspondly, the senate passed the Missouri Compromise on February 1820, which allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine enter as a free state, making the free and slave states balanced once again. Another amendment was passed to prohibit slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern border of Missouri. This event envisioned a possible threat on the relationship between the North and South. Moreover, the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ate flag flew over Fort Sumter. The Civil War that was tamed since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 finally broke out. After four years of fighting, the war was over and the Union won. There were many events, laws, and people that provoked the Civil War. The main problem in every event leading up to the Civil War involved the issue of slavery, making slavery the main cause of the war. The initial blame of the war can be pointed at America 's founding fathers who knew slavery violated every aspect of America’s liberty, but yet they still did not prohibit slavery. If it was not the election of President Lincoln that caused South Carolina to secede from the Union allowing other states to follow, a different event would have triggered the war, making the Civil War inevitable. All in all, the Civil War was bound to happen and it became the bloodiest war in American history.
The Missouri Compromise was a law passed in 1820 to allow Missouri, a slave owning state, and Maine, a free state, to become a part of the United States. This law had prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory, with Missouri as an exception. This law was deemed necessary by the North in order to preserve the unstable balance between the Free and Slave states. Though this does not seem like it would affect history that much, aside from adding to the land of the U.S., this law, or rather the repeal of this law, would only cause the North and South to drift further apart causing a feud that would eventually lead up to the Civil War. In 1817, the Territory of Missouri applied for statehood, which was considered by Congress in 1819.
The Civil War, beginning in 1861 and ending in 1865, was a notorious event in American history for many influential reasons. Among them was the war 's conclusive role in determining a united or divided American nation, its efforts to successfully abolish the slavery institution and bring victory to the northern states. This Civil War was first inspired by the unsettling differences that divided the northern and southern states over the power that resided in the hands of the national government to constrain slavery from taking place within the territories. There was only one victor in the Civil War. Due to the lack of resources, plethora of weaknesses, and disorganized leadership the Southern States possessed in comparison to the Northern States,
There was a delicate balance of eleven free and eleven slave states in the Union, and the admission of a new state would serve to destroy the balance. However, a Kentuckian by the name of Henry Clay brought about the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which stated that Missouri would become a slave state, and that Maine would be admitted as a free state. It also outlined that any land south of the 36°30′ parallel, also known as the ‘Mason Dixon Line’, would be admitted to the union as a slave state. This compromise was criticized by southerners because they didn’t believe that Congress had the power to make laws about slavery, and it was also criticized by northerners who wanted to see the expansion of slavery ended. Though it faced popular disapproval, the compromise managed to hold the union together for several decades after it was
In 1819, Missouri wanted to join the Union, although in the North, as a slave state. In would make the balance of power in the Congress unequal.
After being deadlocked in Congress, the Missouri Compromise was finally passed by a new Congress in 1820. As part of the compromise, Massachusetts had offered its northern most counties to become the new free state of Maine. The addition of two new states kept the balance between free and slave states. This settled the fears of the South gaining votes in the House or Senate. Along with this there was the Thomas Proviso which would admit Missouri as a state on the condition that the South would agree to outlaw slavery above a line from the Spanish Territory to the southern border of Missouri.
Additionally, the majority of states had conflicts between slavery in their territory, one of them dealt with missouri. Missouri applied for admission into the Union as a slave state; this became a problem because missouri ruined the balance for free slaves and slave states. The northern states wanted to ban slavery from occurring in missouri because the unbalanced situation it put towards the other states. In response, the southern states declared how congress doesn’t have the power to ban slavery in missouri. However, Henry Clay offers a solution, the missouri compromise of 1820. Missouri admitted as slave state and Maine becomes a free slave state. Slavery is banned in Louisiana creating a 36 30 line in missouri’s southern border; this maintained the balance in the U.S senate.
In 1820 Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state. As this would ruin the balance between Slave states and Free states in the Senate, Henry Clay proposed the Missouri compromise. This arranged it that while Missouri was admitted as a Slave state, Maine was also admitted as a free state. It also created an imaginary line along the 36o latitude, where slavery was allowed below it but prevented above it. However they limited themselves by only applying the Compromise to lands gained in the Louisiana purchase. This led to conflict after the Mexican war in which America gained new territories in the West. This doomed the Missouri Compromise, which was probably the most promising of the three. Had the Compromise been applied to all American lands then perhaps it could have succeeded. Instead the Missouri Compromise failed and only led to further conflict between north and south in the future.
The fundamental cause of the Civil War was the debate over slavery. As early as 1837, South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun stated that “We of the South…cannot surrender our institutions [of slavery]. To maintain the existing relations between the two races…is indispensable to the peace and happiness of both. It cannot be subverted without drenching the country in blood.” Moreover, every sectional pre-Civil War crisis had slavery at its roots. Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850, meant to quell Southern radicals’ calls of secession over the issue of slavery, addressed slavery in each of its provisions. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, which deepened Southern dislike of the Northern Republican Party, was meant to start a slave uprising. And when South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 186...
The civil war was totally inevitable due to the burning issues that existed between the Northerners and the Southerners. Slavery seems to be a central issue in the conflict between the North and the South. Many of the other issues that made the war inevitable centered on slavery. Southerners finally lost the war that saw their efforts to secede diminished, and it was central in the birth of a United States of America.
The Civil War, often called the War for Southern Independence began on April 12, 1861. The main cause of the war was slavery. The southern states depended on slaves to help grow crops which were the main source of income for the south. Slavery was illegal in all of the northern states but most people actually were neutral about it. The main conflict was if slavery should be permitted in the newly developing western territories.
The Missouri Compromise is said to be one of the key political factors that contributed to the Civil War. This Compromise was passed in 1820 and stated that the land west of the Mississippi was considered a slave state, and the land North was considered a free state, excluding Missouri, which was considered a slave state. It was designed to ensure there were an equal number of slave states and free states represented in the House, which gave both sides an equal vote on a specific issue . Unfortunately with the split of the two regions, tension began to rise and there was talk from the South about seceding from the Union. The South argued that if they had the right to join the Union, it is their right to secede from the Union as well.
The Civil War was inevitable in many reasons. The economic and industrial evolution was mainly in the North side of the United States while the South was just a cotton kingdom, Slave Empire. Also both were completely opposites of one another when it was about freeing the slaves or hiring more. With many debates there has to be sides that would be separated especially if the president has so much hate from the people. With that being said, since many want opposing ideas, the Civil War becomes much evitable.
Congress was put in a tough position when Missouri applied for statehood, for they couldn’t have an uneven number of states. If they didn’t have an even number, they would have to come up with another idea to make slave states and free states equal, such as adding a state or neutralizing an existing slave state. Instead of making one of the existing twenty-two states neutral to slavery they accepted Maine as free state. The acceptance of Maine as it’s own state did not occur until 1820, but the addition of it did even the amount of slave states and free states to twelve and twelve. The Missouri Compromise did not only ban slavery from Maine and allow s...
As the country began to grow and expand we continued to see disagreements between the North and South; the Missouri Territory applied for statehood; the South wanted them admitted as a slave state and the North as a free state. Henry Clay eventually came up with the Missouri Compromise, making Missouri a slave state and making Maine it’s own state, entering the union as a free state. After this compromise, any state admitted to the union south of the 36° 30’ latitude would be a slave state and a state north of it would be free. The country was very much sectionalized during this time. Thomas Jefferson felt this was a threat to the Union.
The American Civil War was the bloodiest military conflict in American history leaving over 500 thousand dead and over 300 thousand wounded (Roark 543-543). One might ask, what caused such internal tension within the most powerful nation in the world? During the nineteenth century, America was an infant nation, but toppling the entire world with its social, political, and economic innovations. In addition, immigrants were migrating from their native land to live the American dream (Roark 405-407). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand African slaves were being traded in the domestic slave trade throughout the American south. Separated from their family, living in inhumane conditions, and working countless hours for days straight, the issue of slavery was the core of the Civil War (Roark 493-494). The North’s growing dissent for slavery and the South’s dependence on slavery is the reason why the Civil War was an inevitable conflict. Throughout this essay we will discuss the issue of slavery, states’ rights, American expansion into western territories, economic differences and its effect on the inevitable Civil War.