“Far better die in such a strife than still to Slavery’s claims concede, … To live thus wage a life-long shame, to die is victory and fame” (American Horizons, p. S14-4). This quote comes from a slave who believed that fighting for his freedom was the only option, even if it meant dying on the battle field. The American Civil War is arguably one of United States history’s darkest moments. War had been brewing for a while, specifically in the earlier part of the 19th Century, as tensions between the industrialized North and the slavery-dependent South began to intensify. Once the South began to secede, Lincoln and his administration recognized the need to act, fearful that the United States would reduce to many small, frail independent countries. …show more content…
“The inevitable negro question would of course be the most [stirred] conversation,” (Letters to the Green Mountain Freeman, p. S14-2). This quote demonstrates that slavery was the “inevitable question,” amplifying the notion of slavery being the driver of war. It was constantly being discussed and questioned about how to approach the matter. On the other hand, it is not uncommon belief that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War, but was rather the different political views between the North and South. The southern states wanted a strong state government, in which the powers were held within individual states; while the northern states wanted a strong central government, power being concentrated in the federal government. The two sides of the nation were also split on political decisions such as the Missouri Compromise, which discussed whether all states above Missouri had to be free states rather than slave states. Although these are all valid points, the underlying cause to each of these events explained was slavery. Without slavery, the South wouldn’t be so opposed to a strong central government. Southerners were opposed to a strong central government because they knew that President Lincoln was against slavery. They feared he would free slaves and ruin their extremely profitable way of living. Political …show more content…
No state officially ceded from the Union until after the election of 1860. When Abraham Lincoln became the President of the United States of America without a single Southern electoral vote, the South became horribly petrified at the misplaced idea that Lincoln intended on ruthlessly putting an end to slavery. Without slavery, the South would be one of the poorest areas of the country. Not only was slave agriculture the main source of income for Southern states, but the majority of commercial investments were placed in the slave industry. A slave ban would have been a tremendous economic hit to the south. The South viewed slavery as a business, in fact the South was so invested in slavery it became common belief that the South used the tremendous wealth produced by the slave business to buy their way into every level of government in the country. They began to theorize that the government was no longer a democracy, but a slavocracy (the rule or domination of slaveholders). The thought of a supposed slavocracy enraged the North and exacerbated its opposition of slavery. This, moreover, contributed additional strain to the frail relationship between the two regions. Southern politicians controlled most leadership positions within congress. These politicians used their power to block the discussion of slavery by implementing the “gag
In Apostles of Disunion, Dew presents compelling documentation that the issue of slavery was indeed the ultimate cause for the Civil War. This book provided a great deal of insight as to why the South feared the abolition of slavery as they did. In reading the letters and speeches of the secession commissioners, it was clear that each of them were making passionate pleas to all of the slave states in an effort to put a stop to the North’s, and specifically Lincoln’s, push for the abolishment of slavery. There should be no question that slavery had everything to do with being the cause for the Civil War. In the words of Dew, “To put it quite simply, slavery and race were absolutely critical elements in the coming of the war” (81). This was an excellent book, easy to read, and very enlightening.
Throughout the years, many people have been taught that the reason the Civil War happened, was to abolish slavery all through the United States. Although that is true, there were more reasons why the Civil War occurred.Referencing will be done on different articles and writers to support the findings of the authors. The article “Slavery, the Constitutional, and the Origins of the Civil War” by Paul Finkelman, discusses about the North (union) and the South (confederacy) and the disagreement of the territories following the constitutional laws regarding slavery, the article explores both sides of the territories and their beliefs of how the situation of slavery should have been dealt with. The article “The Economic Origins of the Civil War” by Marc Egnal, discusses the North’s (union) and the South’s (confederacy) economic situation that could have pushed the two territories to engage in war with one another. Finally, the last article “Politics, Ideology, and the Origins of the American Civil War” by Eric Foner, focuses on the Norths (union) and Souths (confederacy) views on politics and ideas of how each territory is ran and how they have affected the North and the South. These historians supplied specific and different explanations that explained what exactly caused the United States to enter into a Civil War. With the information provided by the authors, the evidence will lead us to the answer of what caused the Civil War.
The election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of the South led to the outbreak of the civil war. The civil war was the first revolutionary change in America. States' rights were a major issue during this time. Issues of power, different interpretations of the constitution, and banking issues led to many difficulties. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. In South Carolina's Declaration of Causes, it was stated that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states" (Document A). The 10th amendment which limited the power of the federal government had acted as a backing for the secession of the South. Nowhere in the constitution did it say that the states had no right to secede from the Union. This secession from the union forever changed the country. Another major change that occurred after the civil war was the thirteenth amendment which abolished slavery. Even though the slaves had fought for the Union in the civil war, they were unable to take any political action and were still inferior as it is stated in document C. The fifteenth amendment granted the right to vote to all men no matter the race. It was argued t...
In Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War, Bruce Levine attributes the cause of the Civil War to the incompatibility between North and South that, in Levine’s opinion, is connected to slavery. Levine claims that from the beginning when the discussion of slavery was left out of the Constitution, a wedge was created between North and South that eventually affected all aspects of life: socially, politically, religiously, and economically, with the North focusing on manufacturing that relied upon free-labor while the South’s cash crop depended upon slave labor. This division caused the two sides to be incompatible and with both sides unwilling to compromise and the interpretation of the Constitution unable to lead to a firm decision, the only foreseen end was through disunion.
On April 12, 1861, Abraham Lincoln declared to the South that, the only reason that separate the country is the idea of slavery, if people could solve that problem then there will be no war. Was that the main reason that started the Civil war? or it was just a small goal that hides the real big reason to start the war behind it. Yet, until this day, people are still debating whether slavery is the main reason of the Civil war. However, there are a lot of facts that help to state the fact that slavery was the main reason of the war. These evidences can relate to many things in history, but they all connect to the idea of slavery.
Thousands of men died in November 1863. Within in a couple of days bodies laid scattered across the battle fields while tens of thousands men sat in a hospital. All of these men participated in one thing, the Civil War. Fighting for the rights of the people and what our constitution stood for. Families and friends had to pick a side, South or the North. Each had their reasoning for why they stood to fight, but surprisingly their reasoning was similar. Each state was proud they live in a country that had broken away from British. They marveled at the idea that all men are created and equal and have certain rights. Americans were proud. Proud to the point that they never stopped pay attention to all that they did. Proud because they put laws on humans and threw them into bondage. In 1861 people started to take sides. In some ways it was unconstitutional, but in others they were fighting for the people. The Civil War had begun. The fate of our country was in the hands of the people. On opposite sides of the war, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee wrote The Gettysburg Address and Letter to His Son there were three astonishingly similarities and differences in the two works: the people are one, acts were unconstitutional and the nation is on shaky ground.
From 1830 to 1860 the views of northern and southern Americans regarding the slave trade drastically differed. The South, which supported the institution of slavery, believed that the practice was a vital part of the national economy. Meanwhile, the North, which contained a majority of the abolitionists and free soilers, thought that slavery was an unnecessary evil in America. This difference in views caused attitudes towards the institution of slavery to differ by region in the United States of America from 1830 to
For a long time, historians have been unable to come to an agreement to why the Civil War started and whether or not it was repressible or irrepressible. Northern and Southern writers had different opinions as to why the war occurred. To most Northern writers, the war occurred because of the unlawful plan of slave owners who were committed to a not liable institution. The North defended the Constitution and was against the immoral aggression of the south. The North clearly defended the Union. However, the Southern writers on the other hand tried to show their views on why the Civil War started by portraying the North as the aggressive ones who wanted to destroy the South and all of its institutions. The south insisted that slavery was not the main cause of the war but instead was the aggressive and unconstitutional acts of the North. The south claimed the North used its powers for political and economic gain and denied that the war had stemmed from differences over slavery. The north’s domineering attitude toward the south was the main cause for their hostilities. They defended this ...
Sectionalism was one of the main causes of the Civil War. The Southern states believed in state's rights and believed that a law not stated in the Constitution belonged to their state government and not the national government. Northerners thought that the national government should pass laws for all the people in the country and only the Court could remove it. The Kansas-Nebraska Act widened the differences between the North and South by saying states could decide to be a free or slave state. This angered the Northerners because they felt it stripped the national government of power. The Fugitive Slave Law required all citizens of the United States of America to catch runaway slaves. The North hated this because if they didn't catch the slaves they could be impisoned and face fines. (Wise) Sectionalism caused the North and South to have division due to the government and the power they should or should not have over states. Sectionalism divided the North and South ...
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.
Constitutionally the North favored a loose interpretation of the United States Constitution, and they wanted to grant the federal government increased powers. The South wanted to reserve all undefined powers to the individual states themselves. The South relied upon slave labor for their economic well being, and the economy of the North was not reliant on such labor or in need of this type of service. This main issue overshadowed all others. Southerners compared slavery to the wage-slave system of the North, and believed their slaves received better care than the northern factory workers received from their employers. Many Southern preachers proclaimed that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible. Southern leaders had constantly tried to seek new areas into which slavery might be extended (Oates 349).
After thoroughly assessing past readings and additional research on the Civil War between the North and South, it was quite apparent that the war was inevitable. Opposed views on this would have probably argued that slavery was the only reason for the Civil War. Therefore suggesting it could have been avoided if a resolution was reached on the issue of slavery. Although there is accuracy in stating slavery led to the war, it wasn’t the only factor. Along with slavery, political issues with territorial expansion, there were also economic and social differences between North and South. These differences, being more than just one or two, gradually led to a war that was bound to happened one way or another.
Today, it is often debated whether the Civil War was truly caused by slavery. I would suggest that the people who dismiss slavery as a cause have either not realized that the other potential causes all trace back to slavery, or are reluctant to believe that southern citizens would go to war over such a cause. When even the highly-supported secession documents clearly outline how important slavery was to the southern states, it is hard to deny its fault in the war. The argument that the Confederacy was fighting for states’ rights is the most-often suggested alternative, however all one needs to do is dig deeper and calculate what these
The North and the South had been sectionalized for years on many issues, yet the majority of the congressmen had still come together when necessary for the good of the Nation, up until 1854. After Lincoln won the election in 1860, the nation was divided by sectionalism. Due to the Nation being divided and the Southerners being paranoid about the slaves being freed, I believe both issues were causes that led to the Civil War. Works Cited Brands, H. W.. American Stories: A History of the United States. New York: Routledge, 1998 2nd ed.
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.