The Fury of the Blue and Grey

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When citizens of America look upon their country, they see unity, liberty, and freedom. To achieve what is seen through the eyes of American citizens, countless struggles and many wars were fought over political and social issues, including the Civil War. In the 1800’s tensions between the North, a manufacturing region, and the South, an agrarian region, grew stronger. In the years leading up to the 1860s, numerous compromises were constructed to preserve the Union. By 1860, the North and the South reached a crossroad; both sides were incapable of further compromise over the idea of slavery. The Northern abolitionists, who were against slavery, gained extensive political power which threatened the economic livelihood of the South, who needed their slaves to work cash crop plantations. On the other hand, Southerners inched towards secession in order to preserve slavery and the prosperity this exploitative system provided. The Civil War would not have occurred if not for prominent social and political causes that instigated conflict between the North and South.
Social causes, including the Dred Scott Decision and the Fugitive Slave Act, played a major role in the creation of the Civil War. The Dred Scott Decision was a U.S. Supreme Court case concerning Dred Scott’s, a slave’s, freedom. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the Supreme Court judge, stated that, “… the authors of the Constitution had viewed all blacks of being of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which that the white men was bound to respect”(Taney The Dred Scott Decision 1854). The ruling indicated that African Americans slaves were not United States citizens. The ruling also dec...

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... the Union and caused slavery issues to come to the political forefront of America.
Political and social issues caused an escalation of tension between the North and South, eventually leading to the Civil War. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott Decision were events that sparked conflict between the free states and the slave states. In pursuing an equitable future, compromises were written and declared unconstitutional due to the questioning of slavery in the United States of America. New laws were implemented, such as the Fugitive Slave Act, but caused more disorder and strife in the Union. America could not unite as a country considering it was socially and politically divided. Due to the Civil War, Americans learned to unite and work together for the common good of the country and realized the importance of equality among the citizens of the United States.

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