Civil War Dbq Essay

In what was the bloodiest wars ever fought in the history of the United States the civil war took an estimated 620,000 lives which was roughly 2% of the population of the United States. The civil war was fought between the northern states and the southern states from 1861-1865. The war was about each state's rights to determine the laws which govern all citizens and whether the federal government had the right to enact laws which superseded state laws. The Confederate States claimed the government did not have the right and they attempted to leave the union--which actually started the war, to prevent that from happening. After The Civil war was fought there has been controversy on what really sparked the civil war to take hold and at what point

territory in the west. His views on slavery disturbed the south as he stated that he did not wish to abolish slavery as it already stood, but what he mentioned in his 1858 “House divided” speech he wanted the public to be informed that slavery was on “the course of ultimate extinction”. The election of 1860 was the point of no return for the Civil War because it officially divided the Northern and Southern states in what was already a heated time between both sides. Before the civil war, the greatest divide between both the north and south was the issue of slavery which was legal in the south but had been banned by states north of the Mason-Dixon line. As the United States started to acquire new territories in the west, heated debates started to erupt on the issue of whether or not slavery would be permitted in those territories. Southerners feared that sooner or later the addition of new free states but no slaveholding states would give control to abolitionists and slavery would be abolished forever. With the south being heavily based on slavery southerners did not like republicans because of their opinions on slavery which was ending slavery, so when Republican Abraham Lincoln won presidency in 1860 it frightened southerners as they feared that their own government was

The Kansas Nebraska Act created serious political consequences, before both whigs and democrats had included northern and southern lawmakers united around serious issues but now slavery was a dividing factor,congressmen from both parties spoke out against the act. The reason behind historians claim that the kansas nebraska act was the point of no return is because this event introduced violence into an atmosphere that was non-violent. The violent skirmishes between antislavery northerners and proslavery southerners occurred from 1854-1861. Historians say that although the many events prior to the civil war were indirect catalysts, the violent outbreaks between northerners and southerners in kansas that killed fifty five people were direct catalyst to the civil war because this was the first time violence had broken out between the north and south. Historians also say that bleeding kansas made the civil war inevitable because of what Senator William H. Seward said to the south “Come on then, Gentlemen of the slave states, since there is no escaping your challenge, i accept it in behalf of the cause of freedom. We will engage in competition for the virginia soil of kansas, and god give the victory to the side which is stronger in numbers as it is in right.” This challenge by Seward deeply provoked the south to emigrate to kansas and dominate in the