The institution of slavery swiftly divided the Americans eventually causing the Civil War. Since the founding of the colonies, the southern colonies drastically differed from its New England neighbors. For example, South Carolina divided because the southern region exploited slavery for the production of cash crops, such as tobacco and sugar while the northern region held different political beliefs and specialized in lumber for ship making. Eventually, this division led to the creation of two new states—North and South Carolina. Similarly, slavery worsened this divide among Americans eventually causing the creation of two new nations—The Union and the Confederacy. Both sides held opposing beliefs and because neither would succumb, the method …show more content…
According to this rule, a slave was considered three fifths of a person. Thus, Southern states employed slaves as a boost in order to compete against northern politicians. Preston described slavery as the South’s “political equality” (Preston). The North contained the most populous states that, by working together, could dominate American politics. Although the South housed fewer citizens as compared to the North, it did include massive numbers of African American slaves. With this ruling, those slave numbers would increase the political power of the South, thus balancing American politics. In this way, Southern states allowed slavery to embed itself deeply into the political form of American life. Another political issue, the Federal Government prohibited slavery in the future states restricting citizens from relocating. Slaves were considered property, and this created issues when dealing with the formation of new states. Citizens who desired to relocate to a new state with all of their property—slaves too—could not, because if the state was classified as a free state, those citizens were not allowed to move there. This restriction enraged Southerners, because it indirectly denied American citizens of their
From colonial times there were differences in geography that gave rise to variations in culture and economy in the United States. Due to the differing characteristics, a sectional economy molded the United States into two distinct regions: the north and the south. The north, a commercial society, which supported industry and commerce while the south, an agrarian civilization, flourished in the production of raw materials with use of slaves. The two economies were both self-supporting and capable to create a stronger, more productive nation. The regional differences sought to build America, in turn threatened to destroy it. Many Historians believe that the Civil War was constructed over the issue of slavery. However, the concerns of states'
From 1861 to 1865, the United States of America was fighting itself. The northern part of the United States, known as the Union or simply the North, was trying to end slavery in the southern part of the United States. The South seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. The North consisted of Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Nevada, and Oregon. The South consisted of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. The North wanted slavery to be abolished, but the South needed slaves for their economy; the conflict started war. The North and the South were both prepared for war.
Slavery was the main cause of the breakup of the Union and influenced other factors, such as territorial expansion, industrialization and economic tensions, and political alignments. Combined, all of these conflicts, with slavery at the root, led to the conflicts in the nation that started the Civil War. The issue of slavery caused conflict regarding new territories, economic stratification, and political turmoil. All of these tensions served to divide the nation, North against South, to start the Civil War.
Arguably the most important cause of the civil war surprisingly did not even pertain to slavery. This unexpected cause involved the growing sectional differences between the North and South. The two places had separate economies, cultures, and geography. Because the South had flat, fertile, and sometimes swampy plains, crops became much more successful there. (Doc 3 Pic 1). Independant agrarian societies and farms took off, supplying food and raw materials to other parts of the world, notably the Northern United States. In lieu of fertile soil and easily diverted rivers as in the South, the North managed to take advantage of their other natural resources. For example, the rocky and mountainous terrain with quick-moving streams supplied
In 1775, parts of Great Britain felt their rights were being infringed. Thusly, they had tried to secede, which lead into the Revolutionary War. Similarly in 1788, the south believed that the newly elected president Lincoln, would infringe on their rights of owning slaves. Resulting from this dispute came the Civil War. Both of these events are quite similar in nature, with the exception of legality. The secession of the south was minimal and unconstitutional.
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
Many different issues upon the north and south caused the Civil War, but slavery was the main conflict. Due to slavery, different political beliefs and systems were created causing conflicts such as disagreements during Westward Expansion and the election of Lincoln. The Constitution tried to balance the inequalities with many compromises, yet failed.
Consequently, this disunion was a result of their divergent economic trajectories, philosophies, and views on slavery, which in the end sparked the start of the Civil War. In terms of economic development, the North and the South took different routes. The North went on to become more industrialized and urbanized, while the South stayed mostly rural and relied on the system of slavery. Conflicting interests and tensions over matters like tariffs, internal improvements, and the spread of slavery into new areas resulted from these disparate economic systems. Because each region followed its own economic interests and goals, frequently at the price of national unity, the economic divide between the North and South increased regional rivalries and contributed to the rise of sectionalism.
Slavery makes people that are confident and people that think they can do anything, make them feel like they can't do anything and make them not confident.
There were several issues that contributed to the split between the northern and southern states. Among these were the deep social, economic and political differences. The split could be traced as far back as the early 1800’s, just as the industrial revolution was beginning. It’s effects on the north and the south caused the economic split. As the north was becoming more industrialized; the south began to rely heavily on slave labor. This was one of the main reasons, as the southern view on slavery differed greatly from the North. These views were based on drastically different interpretations of the constitution.
In my opinion, the South wasn't to blame for the civil war. It was actually the North that was to blame. The Election in 1860, caused the Civil war. The first reason was that Lincoln won the election. Abraham Lincoln won the election vote which infuriated the south. They also heard that Lincoln was about to abolish slavery. This caused the Southerners wanting to rebel and be independent even more. The North was economically strong. They wanted to abolish slavery because they thought that all people regardless of skin color, race or religion is right. The South believed he was pro anti-slavery. Lincoln believed that every “black” man should be free. Lincoln wanted to put an end to slavery during that time period. The South did not want
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
After Independence from Britain, the southern and northern sections of the United States began to separate as they aged, mainly due to conflicts of interests. Even during the creation of the Unites States constitution, the founding fathers debated slavery. Slaves were considered 3/5ths of a person when regarding representation based on population. This lessened the amount of seats southern states would hold in the House of Representatives, lessening their influence on political matters before the civil war. The Northerners had a heavier influence on laws, leading to the passage of laws in their favor. The Northern section of the United States of America became focused on manufacturing while the southern sections became dependent on agriculture, mainly cash crops harvested by slave labor. Although the States rights versus Federal rights conflict played a role in the cause of the Civil War, a major contributing factor was the institution of slavery and how it should be implemented in the United States.
One of the biggest divisions between the north and south was slavery. The south needed slaves to tend to crops such as cotton, which became a major part of the south’s economy after the invention of the cotton gin. The north, meanwhile, gained an increasingly large number of abolitionists opposing slavery. The abolitionists believed that slavery was immoral and were influenced by former slaves like Frederick Douglass, as well as through literature, including Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Although the divisions over slavery would not end until later on agreements like the Missouri Compromise of 1820 reduced tensions by preventing any new states above the 36 30’ parallel from joining the union as a slave state.
The causes of the Civil War were complex and have been controversial since the country began. Some causes include; states’ rights, economics, and slavery. The most recognizable and popular cause is slavery. The freeing of the slaves was an important moral issue at the time and one of the greatest causes of the civil war. "It was only by carefully avoiding the moral issue involved in slavery that Northerners and Southerners could meet on any common ground." (Goldston, 79). The time came in which our great country would finally address the moral issue of slavery. Although there are many different causes to the American Civil War, the main cause was slavery because other causes are rooted in the issue of slavery.