The reason why the United States fought in a Civil War was due to the North and the South not being able to reach an agreement on which states should become slave states, and which would remain free states. This Disagreement was caused by the United States gaining several new states and territories from the Mexican-American war. After that war had ended the South feared that the North would vote to ban slavery for good because the land America gained from Mexico gave the north more states. The Civil War was also caused by fights that broke out in the new states and territories between the North and the South. Due to all the fighting in the states and the disagreements in congress, the United States ended up in a Civil War that split the nation …show more content…
This is due to the fact the North outnumbered the South through the Missouri Compromise and there was no way to work around this issue. Upon congress realizing that the compromise was no longer fair and the free and slave states would not be split evenly, they replaced it with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people, from the North and South to relocate to whichever state they wanted, in hopes of changing the state vote through the practice of Popular Sovereignty. Popular Sovereignty is where the state and its government make decisions based on what the people that live in that state want. The state vote would determine if the state was to stay a free state or become a slave state. This played in the Souths favor, because this allowed them a fighting chance in persuading more states to convert to slave states. Congress assumed that letting the people decide which state should be free and which should be proslavery would potentially help get the states back to even amounts. However this lead to fighting and the North and the South growing farther …show more content…
Some small groups of Northerners banded together and moved west towards the new states to fight back, one of these Northerners was John Brown. John Brown was a supporter of abolishing slavery in the south. These Northerners decided to use scare tactics to make the Southerners leave. Over time the Southerners and Northerners where using the same tactics on each other. This eventually caused even more fighting and blood shed all over the country. The Northerners then decided to fight back by making a militia to fight the South. In turn, the South made their own militia to counteract the North’s, and worked to defend their conversion of the new
Southerners were outraged at John Brown’s attempt to start a slave rebellion at Harper’s Ferry. The Dred Scott v. Sanford decision angered northern Republicans. Northern Democrats struggled with their beloved popular sovereignty. The presidential election of 1860 brought all these issues to the forefront, and its end result was the immediate cause of the Civil War. The Democratic Party was split along regional lines with each side vying for control of the party.
Most people don't know for sure why the American Civil War came to be. However, one theory that repeatedly comes up is the issue of slavery and whether it was just or wrong in America the land of the freedom throughout history and discussions. Charles B. Dew the author of, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and The Cause of The Civil War, claims to be a southerner himself and explains his thoughts and education growing up in the south. In his youth, he was taught by his family that the reason the South went to war was to fight for their State’s rights, but as an adult, he explains that it may not have been the only reason they fought after researching for himself.
There was a conflict between the states when the new territory Kansas went against the Missouri Compromise. The Compromise stated that There could be no slavery beyond the latitude of 36 degrees and 30 degrees. In 1854 Kansas broke out into a fight under the doctrine of popular sovereignty which means the people of Kansas can choose if they want to be a free state or a slave state. Under those terms, Pro-slavery parties and Antislavery parties clashed for whether Kansas becomes the state of the South or of the
The years leading up to the Civil War were filled with great tension between the North and the South. Unfortunately after the result of the Kansas- Nebraska Act of 1854 it became clear to many Americans that the tension between the north and the south no longer had a resolution. The defining moment that solidified the war’s inevitability was in 1860. This year is significant because of the Election of 1860 which placed Abraham Lincoln into power. Now that Lincoln was president it gave southern sates a reason to secede.
American history noted that the secession of the southern states was a reason for the Civil War. The Civil War had many men to die during the cause, less men died in the world war comparing them to the Civil War. Slavery was a cause for the southern states to secede and it could be considered as one of the major factors. Along with state sovereignty, economic, and political difference are amongst the list that caused the south to secede. Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina were the southern states that seceded and form a southern Confederacy.
When Missouri applied to be part of the states, many northerners were panicked because it was a pro-slavery territory and they felt that slave states had too much power already. In 1820, however, Henry Clay of Kentucky announced that if Maine were to be a free state then Missouri should be allowed to be a state too. From this came the notion that states be admitted in pairs, one slave and one free. It was also said that no slavery was allowed above the 36 30 latitude line. Despite the fact that the Missouri Compromise had taken place, slavery was still creeping into the north guised under the legal matter of “indentured servitude.
Implemented in 1854, this revoked the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which forbade slavery in the North. Even though Kansas would not be considered as a Northern state, it became a place of bloodshed as pro- and anti-slavery aspects expanded into the territory, strengthening the rising tension that was already present between the two parties. Pieter Geyl confirms that the North and South were ‘divided by a moral issue of the first magnitude,’ with one party ‘detesting slavery and, the other glorifying it as the basis of its social system.’ ‘Bleeding Kansas’ was an important component in understanding that the different ideologies of slavery between the people of Kansas at this time, resulted in their inability to compensate personal values for communal peace. As this act was aimed to save the North, to unify rather than divide, the Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted in the opposing contention. Reporter William Russell from the London Times had additionally claimed that the ‘tone’ and ‘speech’ of Southerners when alluding to people from the North were said in spite and hostility.
Northern State argued that their states rights were being oppressed when the federal government forced this upon them. This created conflict between Southerners and Northerners in congress over these issues leading to further separation in the
The Civil War is a central event in America's historical background. Though the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined how the nation would pursue its future. The war resolved two questions left unresolved by the Revolution: whether the United States was to be a confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government, and whether this nation would have the agreement that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, or would the nation continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world. The Civil War consisted of many different battles that impacted both the north and south, such as the Battle of Gettysburg, Battle of Antietam,
There are many reasons why the Civil War had started. The main, the biggest reason the Civil war started was because of slavery. The Southerners were afraid that slavery was going to be put to an end. The Civil war had started because of slavery. The Southerners became afraid that their new president Abraham Lincoln a Republican was going to put an end to slavery.
The American Civil War which is better known in America as Civil War was a war fought between 1861 and 1865. The main aim of the war was to determine whether the unions and the independence of the Confederations would survive. The war marks the central event in the history of the United States of America. The war was also important because it shaped and determined how the current America would come to be. After the revolution occurred, it left two unresolved questions which were later resolved by the Civil War.
The states were getting crowded. There was an argument between white settlers moving into the north and south who would decide if Kansas and/or Nebraska would be a slave or free state, called the “Kansas-Nebraska Act”. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed. (Document J)Who is John Brown? John Brown is a white American abolitionist who was against slavery.
The American Civil War played a huge role in our Nation, starting in 1861 and ending 1865. The Civil War determined the life of the Union or freedom for the Confederacy. Numerous issues contributed to the arrival of the Civil War, including slavery, The Dred Scott Decision, States’ Rights, Abolitionist Movement, and The Missouri Compromise. One of the huge issues that contributed to the outbreak of the Union was slavery, which led to secession.
The Missouri Compromise was a federal statute that prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the 36° Parallel, except within the boundaries of Missouri. The federal government passed this law as an attempt to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, as many Northerners wanted to limit the expansion of slavery while Southerners thought the opposite. This again was a conflicting idea that politicians of the North and South battled over, further enhancing the rivalry amongst the two. This act was later replaced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened up the Kansas and Nebraska territory to slavery and future admission of slave states by allowing white male settlers to determine the use of slavery in territories through Popular Sovereignty. This act undermined the prohibition on slavery in territory north of the 36° Parallel that was established by the Missouri Compromise.
Raining bullets, charging enemies, fear, hunger, and impending doom. Who would put themselves under so much pressure? Why would Texans fight in the Civil War? After President Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, many Southern states saw trouble brewing.