The Five Causes Of The Civil War

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The Civil War is easily the most important part of the United States’ history within the nineteenth century. It was the event that most changed the country outside of the writing of the Constitution. The famous outcomes of the war, such as the abolition of slavery in all states, the addition of West Virginia into the Union, and the thousands of soldiers that died on the battlefield, see widely known among the educated American population. However, the events that led up to and caused the Civil War are not as known. Five causes of the war stick out more than the rest, and like everything else in American culture, they have been ranked. The fifth most influential cause of the Civil War is Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This novel portrays the evils of slavery as Tom is put to brutal work by his master, Simon Legree. The book portrays slavery so evilly that, spoiler alert, it ends with Tom’s fellow slaves beating him to death after Legree orders them to. Even though Stowe never witnessed these evils herself, …show more content…

The majority of the events of this compromise, such as the addition of California into the Union as a free state, the District of Columbia’s slave trade closing, and the territories of New Mexico and Utah being to popular sovereignty, were not major triggers of the Civil War. However, the Fugitive Slave Law stuck out like a sore thumb. This law required that all American citizens- both north and south- had to turn in any runaway slaves that they would encounter. This basically outlawed the Underground Railroad. It also outraged all abolitionists, along with a good majority of northerners. They wanted to be able to aid these people be freed of the torturous life of slavery. They knew they needed to find a legal way free these slaves, and unfortunately, the only way was Civil

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