During the 1860s, America was experiencing a crisis that would further test its ability as a new nation. They faced no threat from foreign countries but rather they faced a more conflicting issue in the nation itself. The Civil War was a war fought by the Americans against each other. The issue that caused the country to fight against each other dealt with slavery. Northern states wanted to abolish slavery but the Southern states would not allow this to happen because slaves were of great use to them. In the document, Senator Robert Toombs Compares Secession with the American Revolution, the senator expresses his view on the issue of slavery. From Toombs’ speech it is clear to the reader what his opinion on slavery is. Throughout the document he emphasizes that there was nothing wrong with owning a slave. He even repeats on multiple occasions the idea that, “here alone, am I under the ban of the empire.” Multiple lines after he continues by giving examples of him alone not having the freedom to own slaves like in the times before without being violated by the public. This can be seen as significant in being able to understand one side of the war. From his perspective, slave owning is considered legal and necessary. To support this, one can …show more content…
Slavery was the important issue that had to be addressed. While the northerners thought slaves should have freedom, southerners thought the opposite and found them essential to their everyday lifestyle and for the growth of the economy. By analyzing Toombs’ words, we can see how much of an issue this was to southerners. They felt their rights were being taken away. This was one of the main factors to why the Civil War started. In addition to that, their rights were not given freely to them, they fought hard to gain them because of the American Revolution. So they were not willing to just give that away so
Since the establishment of the New England and Chesapeake / Lower South colonies, there had been significant differences between these regions such as overall wealth, economic structure and industrialization, ideal government, and usage of slavery. Leading up until the Civil War, the North had grown into a semi-industrialized, diverse economy with practically no slaves, and the South had remained agrarian with a complete economic dependency on slavery. Although South Carolina’s declared secession when it left the Union, and Lincoln fought the Civil War on a platform of keeping the Union together, the reasons for war and circumstances that led to this boiled down to one issue: slavery. The war was ultimately caused by conflicts regarding several
The Civil War was a very significant time in American history. The Civil War was fought between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. Most people say the Civil War was a war that was fought to end slavery, which it was for most of the population. The Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union. The South wanted slaves to help run there farming plantations. Southern slave owners did not want their way of life threatened or changed, life had been the same for them for generations. Those Americans from the North were considered more progressive and had more influence from other cultures which helped open their eyes to the horrors of slavery. But for many of the men, going to war was a chance to escape boredom and some came because it was the right thing to do (p. 28).
Part 1:The secession of 1860 could not be blamed on one event or idea. The conflict was due to decades of tension and conflict as Americans struggled to create systems of law governance that balanced out the interest of individuals, states, and the federal government. One of the major reasons was due to slavery, which has been an important topic in politics. As early as 1775 all colonies allowed slavery but as the years came, the North and South started to divide.
H.L.Mencker once said, “The American People, North and South, went into (Civil) war as citizens of their respective states, they came out as subjects… what they thus lost they have never got back.” April 12, 1861, was the day an unavoidable war was started, the Civil War (The Civil War Begins). The dispute over slavery was an ongoing issue between the North and South since as early as 1858. As the controversy between the North and South continued over slavery continued, the south had discussion about secession. When delegates from the slave states meant, the “Ordinance of Secession” declared that “ Union was now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved.”
The Civil War was a time of fighting within the United States brought on by many events including the Missouri Compromise, abolition movement, presidential election of 1860, secession of Southern states, and other occurrences. Most Southern states seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. The big divide stemmed from the differing positions on slavery. The North had been gradually abolishing slavery and did not depend on such free labor in the way the South did. The agricultural dependant economy of the South relied on African American labor. Therefore, each side feared the stance the government would take on the issue of slavery and how that would affect the economy and politics of the nation. From 1861 to 1865, the
The Civil War is something almost everyone has a general idea about. It is more than a huge part of America’s history and is the central event in America 's historical consciousness. This war, unlike the American Revolution which created the first American states, determined what kind of nation it would be. Though there are many reasons for the cause of the American Civil War, one of the main reasons is the different attitudes the North and the South had toward slavery. In January of 1863, The Emancipation Proclamation was
Every time there is a war, there is a fundamental question whether it was possible to avoid it or not; so it is about the US Civil War, which has been regarded as one of the most influential and significant events in the history of the United States. On December 20th, 1860, South Carolina declared its intent to secede from the Union. Its secession was followed by the secession of six additional states from the Deep South. By February 1861, the seven states from the South had drafted a provisional constitution and started being the Confederate States of America. There were too many differences between the two factions for peaceful reconciliation. The United States was essentially two separate nations: North and South, which had to co-exist as one.
In April 1861, the United States of America went to war. They did not go to war with a foreign power, because of a border dispute, and they did not go to war with the native people because of their hunger for more land. No, this would be a war among themselves, north against south, brother against brother, and in some instances even father against son. In the four long and bloody years that this war lasted more than 600,000 of these brothers, fathers, and sons would die in the many battles. Many people point to slavery as the reason the civil war was fought. Although slavery was one of the key issues, the causes for the war run much deeper. Besides slavery, other issues that were causes of the civil war included the differences in moral value, and the different ways the politicians interpret the constitution. First of all, the most obvious cause of the war was slavery. According to the map in document “An” all slaves and cotton were in the southern states. Slavery had already been abolished in the north years before, and every time a territory was to become a state there was a huge struggle between the pro-slavery south and the northern abolitionist. Each time peace was maintained by way of compromise. In his speech in 1858 Abraham Lincoln foretells the upcoming war by s0aying, “In my opinion, it will not end until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Doc M). So, clearly this difference in
One of the greatest issues within this time period was slavery. The subject had been suppressed for years, and made a halfway appearance within the Era of Good Feelings before it was buried, once again. Slavery was the greatest tension-causing topic between the North and South. Southerners were pro-slavery, as their farms and ways of live depended upon it. Northerners were generally abolitionists, as it was immoral and unconstitutional, in their eyes. Southerners saw the Northerners’ wishes to abolish slavery as means to obtain even more power. Were slavery to be abolished in the South, Southern agriculture and economy would immediately fail, affecting the rest of America, as well. There’d be no one to work on the plantations, except the white Southerners, themselves. Simply, without slaves, the Southern way of life would
Sectional conflict between the North and South was the very platform of the birth of the Civil War. Slavery was a prominent dispute that played a large role in the differences throughout the U.S. at this time, but there were other causes as well including economic and social differences and the election of Abraham Lincoln. In the midst of various events in the 1850s, it was the southern secession that began the true separation of the Union and the Confederacy, which showed the reality and quickness of the arrival of the Civil War in the United States.
The Civil War was the war that divided the young American nation into two opposing sides. One side being the North, also called the Union, and the second side being the South, also called the Confederacy. The root cause of why the South seceded from the Union has been debated and argued since the beginning of the war in 1861. Most people argue that the argument, between the North and the South, over slavery was the main reason why the South left the Union. However, the issue has to be more complex than just the issue with slavery. The root cause of the of the South secession from the Union was a combination of the South’s aggravation and fear over their dependence on the North for their economic prosperity and their dependence on slavery for a highly profitable economy.
The Civil War was caused by many several pressures, principles, and prejudices, fueled by sectional differences, and was finally set into motion by a most unlikely set of political events. From economic differences to political differences all the way up to cultural differences, the North and the South opposed each other. These tensions were further increased after the western expansion of the United States. By the early 1850’s a civil war was known to be likely coming soon.
In 1861, a Civil War broke out in the United States when the South declared their independence from the Union. There is a great amount of reasons that people can argue how the Civil War was started. However, what most people don’t understand, is that most of the events leading up to the Civil War were related to slavery. Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict, which led to a very vicious feud.
In 1861, the American Civil War commenced after many years of tension building between the Northern and Southern states. The main reason of the tension was said to be the debate of slavery between the North and South, and although some documents support this claim, it is false. The war had been brewing since 1607, before slavery was even introduced to the colonies that would become the United States of America. The debate of slavery did play a major part in the civil war; however it did so in supporting the true cause of the civil war. The main cause of the American Civil War was not the debate of slavery, but rather Europe’s role in the American economy.
The Civil War was a war between the union, and confederate states in the United States that occurred from 1861-1865. Many people believed that the Civil War was about slavery and southern states right to defend their states’ rights. The confederates were fighting for their liberty and independence under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, who they felt was a tyrant. However, the union, was fighting to preserve their territory, that was created by their founding fathers from chaos and dismemberment. President Jefferson Davis believed that the civil war was based on the confederate rights to secede from the union. Jefferson also felt that Abraham Lincoln was to blamed for the start of the civil war, since he was against slavery. Lincoln’s intended goal was to preserve the union, he claimed slavery was not the reason. “If I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all slaves I would do it, and if I could slave it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that (Shi &Tindall, 2015, pg.465)”. Lincoln told everyone that if the southern states were to return to the union that slavery would still exist. However, many people believed that Lincoln wasn’t being truthful.