Final Civil War Essay Analysis Slavery was the most important cause of the Civil War, because this single issue divided the North and South to begin with. The ideological differences between the North and South led to economic differences, conflicts over newly acquired territories, disputes over the constitution, and political extremism. The Election of 1860 was the culmination of these disputes and caused the South to secede in 1861 and guided the way towards the Civil War. The Northern states had a largely industrial economy. The coastal states were filled with port cities to ship out manufactured goods to other places around the world. Capitalism was in full swing, with all sorts of factories popping up everywhere. The industrial strength of the North ended up being its greatest strength throughout the entire Civil War. The labor supply of the North, and the amount of goods they produced, were unmatched by any other country in the world. The north tried to protect all of its newly acquired industries, especially the textile factories. So when the South attempted to trade its largest export, cotton, to Britain for textiles and other manufactured goods, the North, with twice the population and more influence in federal policy making, placed tariffs on the British goods being imported to the United States. The South felt this was a violation of their rights. The Southern States had a much smaller, rural economy, King Cotton. The South was built on a foundation of farming, plantations, and cotton production. They also had a smaller population, and as a result, a smaller labor force. With fewer workers and a more labor intensive farming economy, they were left only one option, slavery. In 1800 the South had around 1 mill... ... middle of paper ... ... the Constitutional Union party. Lincoln's victory was the cause for secession of South Carolina on December, 20, 1860. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed South Carolina’s footsteps, seceding immediately after. The new Confederate government under President Jefferson Davis and South Carolina were very determined to defeat the Federals. Through all of the political affairs, territorial disputes, economic differences, and Election of 1860, slavery seems to play a part in each of these decisions. Everything comes back to the issue of slavery in the end. Attempting every possible way to resolve this reoccurring issue never seemed to work well enough to benefit both sides. Eventually, due to all of the disagreement and debate, slavery initiated the Civil War, the single most important and horrific war in United States history.
The decades leading up to the American Civil War showed a great divide in the economic, political, and regional attitudes between the North and South. These divisions still plague the country today. However, there is a divide on whether economic anxieties or political differences were the major factor in the run up to the Civil War.
When the war began and the union blockaded all their ports the south was out of luck. They had very little industrial workers and manufactured goods compared to the north so during the blockade they could not make their own weapons or food other than corn. (Doc 2) The north had the advantage because they supplied the south with a lot of important items such as cotton-mills and steamships. (Doc 3) They also had better means of transportation. The north had better boats because they had factories equipped to make them and they also had more railroads to transfer weapons and equipment to soldiers. (Doc 1) The north was meant to win from the beginning and even though it took longer than expected they still beat the south and defeated slavery. No one document will tell you that slavery caused the Civil War, but if it had not been for slavery the war would have never
The North was based on industrialism and the South on agriculture. Perhaps one of the greatest issues ever faced by the United States was that of slavery. The South had become extremely content with their way of life with slaves and the North were very against it. This caused many disagreements between the two regions and ultimately was one of the main causes of the Civil War. They also had different views on tariffs due to the difference in the economies. The North was booming with industrialization and they didn’t like competing with the goods being imported. The tariffs provided protection for the northern industries and in turn had a negative impact they had on the southern economy. This only amplified the uneasy feeling that the South felt about the Union. They feared the Union would grow too powerful and the people would eventually lose their voice. It was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that opened the door and unleashed the beast that was sectionalism in the nation. After the compromise the North and South had a hard time agreeing on anything.
The South was fighting against a government that they thought was treating them unfairly. They believed the Federal Government was overtaxing them, with tariffs and property taxes making their lifestyles even more expensive than they already had been. The North was fighting the Civil War for two reasons, first to keep the Nation unified, and second to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the commander and chief of the Union or Northern forces, along with many other Northerners, believed that slavery was not only completely wrong, but it was a great humiliation to America. Once we can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout.
The election of Abraham Lincoln, an anti-slavery advocate, in 1860 resulted in the secession of the South from the United States of America. The South seceded from the Union and encouraged others to do the same, as Abraham Lincoln was against popular sovereignty and the Constitution. (Doc 7) Abraham Lincoln condemned the institution of slavery, which led the the secession of the South upon his presidential nomination.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States of America, the repercussions of which led to civil war. However it was not only Lincoln’s election that led to civil war but also the slavery debate between the northern and southern states and the state of the economy in the United States. Together with the election of Lincoln these caused a split, both politically and ideologically, between the North and South states which manifested into what is now refereed to as the American Civil War.
Since the beginning of the Market Revolution, the institution of slavery became the leading factor that intensified the relations between the North and the South. Regarding the geographic differences between the North and South, the South was primarily agrarian and the North was mainly urban. Therefore, the North rapidly industrialized while the South remained relatively rural and cotton-slave based. As a result, the Market Revolution economically separated the North and the South and created a second party system. Thus, the issues of pro-slavery and anti-slavery arose between the Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans in the 1850s. The North desired to halt the expansion of slavery into western territories while the South strongly opposed. These two opposing parties led to radical abolitionism in the North, William Henry Seward and John Brown, and extreme secessionism in the South, James Henry Hammond, and South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. Due to their strict ideologies regarding slavery, both parties could not compromise on the issue of the expansion of slavery. Therefore, according to Americans in the years prior to the Civil War, conflict was inevitable.
The majority of speculations regarding the causes of the American Civil War are in some relation to slavery. While slavery was a factor in the disagreements that led to the Civil War, it was not the solitary or primary cause. There were three other, larger causes that contributed more directly to the beginning of the secession of the southern states and, eventually, the start of the war. Those three causes included economic and social divergence amongst the North and South, state versus national rights, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case. Each of these causes involved slavery in some way, but were not exclusively based upon slavery.
The Civil War in America is known to this day for being the pivotal turning point for slavery. But all the events in American politics that took place in the years prior to the war are just as crucial. Slavery was the solid foundation to America’s Political history because tremendous impact that the compromise of 1850, abolitionist/proslavery incidents, and the election of 1860 had. It is interesting to think about how different America would’ve been were it not for these exciting times in history. How much longer would America have been divided over the battle involving slavery? Although that will never be known, it is undeniably true that these events defined and changed our nation in a time of crisis.
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 for 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.
By 1855, the Whig Party had collapsed, and most of the members joined the new popular party, the Republicans. The Democrats believed in slavery, while the Republicans were against it. This led to greater conflict in the North and South, this gave them competition. In fact, the election of 1860 was a major cause of the Civil War. During this election, Lincoln became the first Republican president, vowing to abolish slavery. Lincoln winning presidency gave the South a huge disadvantage, slavery was vital to the Southern economy, so this posed a great threat to the South. Immediately after the election, seven southern states seceded from the Union to form a new nation called the Confederate States of America. Lincoln, of course, attempted to avoid disunion, but failed miserably. Therefore, within the first months of his presidency, the Nation was engaged in war. Lincoln then lead the Union to victory, and abolished slavery in America. Lincoln
The existence of slavery was the central element of the conflict of the north and south. Other problems existed that led to this succession but none were as big as the slavery issue. The only way to avoid the war was to abolish slavery, but this was not able to be done because slavery is what kept the south running. When the south seceded it was said by Abraham Lincoln that “ a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Because slavery formed two opposing societies and slavery could never be abolished, the civil war was inevitable. These were all the reasons why the south seceded from the union, this succession was eminent and there was no plausible way to avoid it.
The Southern and Northern states varied on many issues, which eventually led them to the Civil War. There were deep economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. These differences stemmed from the interpretation of the United States Constitution on both sides. In the end, all of these disagreements about the rights of states led to the Civil War. There were reasons other than slavery for the South?s secession. The manifestations of division in America were many: utopian communities, conflicts over public space, backlash against immigrants, urban riots, black protest, and Indian resistance (Norton 234). America was a divided land in need reform with the South in the most need. The South relied heavily on agriculture, as opposed to the North, which was highly populated and an industrialized society. The South grew cotton, which was its main cash crop and many Southerners knew that heavy reliance on slave labor would hurt the South eventually, but their warnings were not heeded. The South was based on a totalitarian system.
Although the American Civil War mainly occurred because of slavery, the fact is that slavery had a lot to do with economic and social issues.
In the U.S. senate was a heated debate over the issue of slavery. In the South, voices were raised and demanding a separation from the Union. The conflict between the thoos states was also fueled from the upcoming presidential elections. Abraham Lincoln was one of the most promising candidates and an opponent of slavery. Later Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th president of the United States on November 1860. He was the first republican president and he received 180 of 303 possible electoralvotes and 40 percent of the popular votes.1 2 The South immediately took political consequences. South Carolina declared to withdraw from the federal government on December 1860. The representatives met six slave states and formed the formation "Confederate States of America" in February 1861. The president of the Confederacy was Jefferson Davis. Five more states joined this confederation a short time later. The capital of the Confederacy was Richmond in Virginia3.