Cornerstone Speech Analysis

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Slavery and its Contribution to the American Civil War

During the civil war in America, Alexander Hamilton Stephens served as the Confederate States of America’s Vice President, despite his previous reservations against Georgia’s secession, and later went on to become the governor of the state of Georgia. Stephens is best known for his considerably controversial speech referred to as the ‘Cornerstone Speech’ in Savannah, Georgia, during which he expressed his opinion and the Southern states’ position on slavery as an ardent supporter of the enslavement of the black race. In his address, he acknowledged the then new constitution’s provisions for the citizens’ fundamental rights. However, in accordance to the Confederate

The movement further included a gender perspective on the matter when Margaret Garner, an escaped slave, committed suicide and killed her daughter in what she considered a fate better than slavery, which she revealed was worse for female slaves compared to their male counterparts (Silk & Silk 7). Together with the increased reports of slave revolts during which some masters were killed in the southern states, the time around which the inauguration took place and the speech was delivered was marred with heightened hostility and the widening of the rift between the two factions supporting and against slavery; the southern and northern states

At the time of speech and inauguration in 1861, the tension was high between the northern and the Confederate states, a situation which was aggravated by the two events. The situation escalated into a full-blown war on April 12 the same year, with armed forces from the Confederate states leveling an attack on a fort in Charleston in what marked the beginning of the American Civil War (Fitzgerald 8).

The Confederate Leaders’ Choices and Actions Leading to the Civil War

The leaders of the Confederate states, led by Jefferson Davis perceived Abraham Lincoln’s election as a threat to their culture and way of life, beginning with their enslavement of black people, against which his administration was ardent in opposition. This difference in ideologies led the government of the seven states to the decision to seek peaceful secession from the union which constituted the United States. After the failure of the union to recognize the Confederacy as a sovereign state, the rebellion began, lasting four years.