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Civil War Speech Analysis

Decent Essays

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

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