The Civil war was not inevitable; it was the result of extremism and failures of leadership on both sides. This war was long forthcoming; we see this conflict as a nation divided or as Lincoln put it a house divided (Doc 4). It was a conflict between pro-slavery southerners and anti-slavery northerners. Both sides felt strongly about their position, leading to neither side backing down. However, this war could have been avoided through a compromise of stronger leadership and less extremism. First of all, extremism was evident in both sides. An example of this would be the incident at Harper’s Ferry, in which John Brown attacked a fort and tried to arm slaves with weapons so that they could revolt (Doc 6). Another example would be the fugitive slave act, which allowed for slave owners to get back slaves who had ran way and gone to the north. Two extremes such as arming slaves and having slave owners catch runaway slaves in the north led to a division in our country. …show more content…
Tensions between both sides arose when Douglas passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Senator Douglas felt that Kansas and Nebraska should be subjected to popular sovereignty like other western territories. Although the many temperate politicians like Abraham Lincoln wanted to avoid the Civil War and were fine with allowing slavery to die slowly. But, many influential political leaders of the 19th century were not. The South was interested in maintaining slavery to the new territories to increase their economy and political power. Due to lack of leadership neither side could come to a compromise, as Stephen Douglas put it what applied in the South could not similarly apply as in the north and vice versa (Doc 5), these were two distinct societies, but there was still room for a middle ground. The North had an interest in limiting the spread of slavery into the new territories for both purposes of controlling Southern political
The causes and effects of the Civil War will be defined through the institution of slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the military leadership of President Lincoln to resolve the uncompromising political position of the South/Confederacy. Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech will be an important primary source that defines the underlying resistance to the expansion of the slave states into new territories taken by the U.S. government in the 1850s. More so, the uncompromising and an increasingly militaristic aggression of the South in seceding from the Union defines the effects of this political “divide” between Republicans and Democrats in Congress due to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. At the center of this issue, Lincoln’s leadership defines the slow process of political causality in opposing slave state status, which eventually manifested itself into a “house divided” in the Civil War. In essence, the root cause of the Civil War will be defined through the tension between slave and free state status, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the important pro-northern leadership of Lincoln in the coming war that would divide the nation.
The Civil War was provoked for several reasons which included industry, slavery, and territorial disputes among the Northern states and Southern states of the newly established United States. The first recorded engagement of war between the North and South is documented to have taken place on April 12th, 1861 at The Battle of Fort Sumter. This was the starting point of a war that would claim over 600,000 American lives in a relatively short span of 4 years.
take about hundred years later after the Civil War (1861-65) for the United States’ government to pass the Civil Rights Bill in 1964 recognizing the black community’s rights? Basically, the Civil War was about fighting for what kind of labor force was going to prevail. The north represented for a free labor economy while the South fought for the preservation of slavery. As Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor stated that the “wealth and power were not equally distributed in Southern society” (Yamahtta). While a small white proportion owned slaves in the South, the rest contributed in the southern society by maintaining order. In the North, free blacks were an obstacle for whites since they were constantly competing with each other for occupations. As a result, the
Have you ever loved something so much that you would do anything to protect it? That is what the Texans did to protect Texas. There are lots of interesting things that went down in the Civil War… two interesting facts of the civil war are: John Brown tried to start slaves again by attacking at Harper's Ferry, and Governor Houston refused to take the loyalty oath so then he was forced to resign. So why did Texas fight? Texans fought to protect their country because, they wanted to protect slavery, for their love of Texas, and the states rights.
I believe the Civil War was inevitable. Both sides had strong beliefs and had a strong separation between them. At some point in time, the North and the South were doomed to fight for their beliefs on slavery. On one hand the North absolutely against slavery, while the South was for it. Between the North and South's different beliefs, tension, and laws the Civil War was bound to happen.
Civil War is considered the first "Modern War" because it was the first war after the industrial revolution. More technology was invented, and modern weapons were used which lead to a great death toll and medicine. It was the war that transformed our country and it was considered the first photographed war. It began when the Second Confiscation Act was passed. It states that confederate states that rebelled against the government or committed treason were to have all their slaves freed. What made the complete shift from preserving the union to end slavery was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which took away slavery from the confederate stated. The Emancipation was not immediately released but encouraged for four reasons:
“Where slavery is, thecan re liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot” -Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 at the Battle of Fort Sumter. This war was also known as “The War Between the States”. It involved The Confederates (south) and The Union (north). The issue between the groups were slavery and central power.
The battle of Bull Run ended today. Northerners, like myself, know it as Bull Run but the Confederates know it as Manassas. This battle is giving me bad thoughts about the outcome of this war. This was a Southern victory and the Confederate army looks high in spirit and high in confidence, compared to the hurt, tired, and disappointed North. The great leadership of the Confederate generals won this battle. Their plans and attacks were no match for the Union ones. I hope the North can do something to rebound from this great loss, maybe there will be a second battle.
“Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came,” (Abraham Lincoln). The American Civil War was caused by the enmity and growing friction between the Northerners and the Southerners, mostly over slavery. The enmity and friction reached to such a level that the Southerners left the Union. The Northerners had to accept the Civil War because without the war, the South would be gone and the Union would have been in shambles. The enmity that threw the United States into the Civil War was caused by numerous amounts of reasons. One specific reason which helped incite the hostility between the parties was the Kansas-Nebraska
The Civil War was not a spontaneous conflict, rather it was the culmination of various events in American history that were in the two decades preceding it. These events exposed a rift in American society which would eventually lead to the Civil War. Among these events were the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Mexican-American War. Both of them lead to a highly polarized reactions from Northerners and Southerners in the slavery debate. In the end, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Mexican-American War intensified Northern opposition to slavery, which as a result put America on a path to war.
First of all, the political leaders of the North and the South had different views of how the country should turn out in the end. A leader from Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner who was a northerner who wanted to abolish slavery and South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks who was a southerner who believed slavery was morally correct. Brooks attacked Sumner with a cane until he was unconscious on the in the senate chambers for Sumner criticized pro-slavery supporters.(Deverell and White, 449) Brooks was a pro-slavery supporter and had beat or harmed other men before because they disapproved of slavery.(Deverell and White, 448-449) Slavery once again was the main source of the conflict between these regions.
There has always been quite a bit of tension between northern and southern territories while creating our nation. Though we all had one common goal - expanding westward - northerners and southerners had many different ideals on how to achieve that goal. Many historians believe that the Civil War could have been avoided, I for one believe the Civil War was quite inevitable. Obviously, the different ideas are going to cause some tension between the two ‘colonies’. Looking at all the events that did lead to the Civil War I have come to the conclusion that there were three broad causes which lead to the Civil War. The three major causes of the Civil War are the challenges over: political disputes, slavery, and tariffs.
Slavery caused many violent events in the 17 and 1800’s. The South and the North could not agree with slavery; the North was anti-slavery and the South were pro-slavery. The south considered slaves to be their own personal property and the slaves were not allowed to be counted as a citizen of the United States; they were only considered to be counted as 3/5 of a person. Because slave owners were so harsh to their slaves, the slaves generated many slave rebellions and also conducted the Under Ground Railroad which took them to the north to be free if they could make it through it. The North and South also tried to solve the disagreement of slavery in the new Missouri by creating the Missouri Compromise, which stated that North of the 36-degree latitude line would be free of slavery, and South of the 30-degree latitude line would be slave areas. When more states started to come along, the disagreement worsened. During the popular sovereignty voting for each state for free or slave, southerners crossed the border to alter the votes and argued that slaves are their personal property and if they choose to move to one of the new states that is a free state, they should be able to bring their slaves with them. Throughout the years slavery continued to be a major argument, so Abraham Lincoln decided he needed to do something about it without breaking up the union; and that meant issuing an Emancipation Proclamation for Confederate States.
1863 a series of battles were fought between the Confederate army and the Union Army. Battles such as: Gettysburg, Viscksburg, Battery Wagner, Chickamauga Creek, and Chattanooga. Along with these battles the Gettysburg Address was presented, the role of women was noticed, and riots in New York broke out. Many say that these battles were the turning point of the U.S. Civil War. General Robert E. Lee, from the south and George G. Meade from the north lead their troops. On July 4th Robert E. Lee surrendered to the north, and the south was defeated.
There were several primary causes that would eventually lead to one of America’s bloodiest war and now I will explain each one in further detail. One of the main issues that would spark tensions between the northern and southern states was their differing views on slavery. In the North the most prominent idea in peoples mind during the period before the war was the idea of free labor. (Perret 10) They believed that it emphasized economic opportunity in the northern states. (Perret 14) Many anti-slavery movements would soon begin in the northern states and gain great momentum within the 1830’s and 1840’s. What these movements aimed at doing was to change the way people worked and lived which would help the working class adapt to new