Louis P. Masur’s book, The civil War: a Concise History, Is a book that gives an overview of the civil war from 18 to 1800, Providing multiple causes an consequences that emerged from the war. The book begins by reviewing the origins of the war. Chapter one covers the issues between northern and southern states and the tension over right and slave possession. The tension created a conflict that raised a number of political, social, and military events that then proceeded into a battle to abolish slavery from the colonies. After that, In April 1861, the the first shot of the war was fired and more than 600,000 soldiers were killed and wounded. A large portion of the South was consumed by violent battles, making the Union nearly
The Civil war was bound to happen because of the dissimilarities between north and south over economics. In the first half of the nineteenth century, economic differences increased. When the cotton gin was invented, it had caused the south to have a totally different economic path than the north. (246). Eventually, the
The Civil War is one of the bloodiest wars in American history, but what started it? What did it lead to? In the book, “Two Miserable Presidents”, by Steve Sheinkin, the author explains events that led up to the civil war and how they were finally resolved through the leadership of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the book, we learn about the causes of the Civil War through anecdotes and we learn “everything your schoolbooks didn’t tell you about the Civil War.” He gives a humorous 13 step guide in ripping a country in two and names each section of the book a with a captivating yet true title. He teaches the reader about a couple of the most important battles and generals of the civil war. Instead of being a plain research book about the civil war, he gives us accounts of true yet hilarious events during the civil war, such as a soldier rushing into battle with half of his hair shaved because he couldn’t finish his haircut. Or even about the time opposing soldiers did not fight and instead met at a river to trade goods like newspaper, tobacco, and card in makeshift boats. Steve Sheinkin explains the Civil war in simple, perhaps oversimplified tales and fact. This, however, does not take away the depth of the book, fully going into slavery and the impact of cotton, he does his part in explaining the Civil War.
The first main cause of the Civil War was economic differences between the Northern and Southern states. During the first few decades of the 19th century, the North had an industrial revolution that brought an economy that relied on laborers. While at the same time, the South continued to rely on slaves for their farming and the production of cotton. The Northerners did not need slaves for their economy, but the Southerners could not make any profit without cotton or slaves. In the 1860’s, the North had twice as many railroads as the South, and the South had a bigger cotton production because of their slave population (Document A). This demonstrates how the Union maintained an industrial economy and the Confederacy
To a greater extent, slavery was the greatest cause of the outbreak of the civil war in 1860. Disputes of slavery caused economic and political troubles between the northern and southern states leading up to the civil war. The fact the the northern and southern states were different in almost every way caused them to turn out like completely different territories, one of their greatest differences was the fact that most southern states economy relied on hard labour, agricultural jobs like tobacco in Maryland, and cotton in Virginia; this caused their economy to be more based on the labour of slaves than the more developed territories in the north (Harrold), who after this time was starting to not need the slave labour in their territories because after early 1800’s, the industrial revolution had been spreading to America, and the country developed very quickly. But in this expansion, only the north states were getting the effect of the industrial revolution, meaning the north would not need slave
With no final agreement, the country had no other choice but to go to war with itself. The slow decline of the, once powerful, Southern economy and the major issue of the abolishment of slaves are what led to the cause of the American Civil War. While economics and political structure played an important role in the cause of the Civil War, slavery was the main reason why altercations arose. Many historians and teachers try to hide the fact that slavery was such a huge factor in the cause of the Civil War because they looked at slavery as the “norm”. To them, the differences between the Republicans and Democratic formed great disagreement. Without the use of slavery, the South’s economy would not have thrived so much. ““You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” (William
After the efforts to gain independence from Britain and the creation of the United States of America, eighty years later this union was not so united. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, it was the first time that Americans fought Americans. Among many reasons, the Civil War is known to be a result of the arguments over the delineation of the States’ Rights or the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln. In actuality, the Civil War, the most deadly war in American history, was due to disputes over slavery in the American territories. Therefore, the Civil War was inevitable because of the consequences that occurred one being slavery. In fact, today multiple historians have determined that the main and only cause of the Civil War was slavery. Historians such as David Goldfield and even the president during that time Abraham Lincoln both accounted for the war being caused by slavery. Goldfield once said, “Both the Northerners and Southerners recognized slavery as the immediate cause of the Civil War”. Although many say that issues with agriculture and industry caused the war the main factor was slavery, which lead to why the Civil War was
April 12, 1861, the day that the Confederates and the Union squared off in a Civil War that ended with a disastrous number of 600,000 fatalities. Several Compromises failed to fulfill their purpose of slavery and the issue of tariffs began to deteriorate the United States economically. Popular sovereignty and representatives in Congress determined the states rights for themselves. The Civil War was caused by the state’s rights and their need to escape the Union, slavery which poised a great threat to the breakable United States, and the economic differences that identified the strength and weaknesses of the North and South.
When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin because she wanted to stir up an anti-slavery statement. Slavery was already the unpopular choice for Northerners, but Harriet Beecher Stowe made the Northerners even more opposed to slavery. Slavery even became less popular in the Southern states. The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin made many Northerners realize how unjust slavery was for the first time, and increased the differences between the North and the South. With more people opposed to slavery, Southern slave owners worked even harder to defend their position on slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin influenced abolitionists to be more
After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the rise of the Republican party, Southerners feared the tipping of the balance of political power against them; their need for self-determination parallel the colonists’ belief of rebelling against the oppressive government of Great Britain. However, the Civil War represented something more: the clash of the feudalistic, agrarian South with the industrialized, capitalistic North. These two powers differed socially, politically, and economically, and were especially conflicted over slavery. These two sections of the United States were divided against one another, and could not survive this way. Therefore, it is more accurate to state that though the Civil War resembled some aspects of the American Revolution, it was a clash between two forces who could not exist with one another in their current state, leading inevitably to conflict between the
The Civil War was caused by three main reasons are economic differences, interpretation of Constitution, and moral beliefs.
There were three main causes of the civil war including slavery, sectionalism and secession. Slavery was a huge part of it and it led to the Missouri Compromise where any states below the border would be slave states and the anything north of that was free states. (Mrs. Wise) "The south feared the declaration of freedom for the slaves by government leaders in the North." Next, sectionalism. Sectionalism- loyalty to your state or lifestyle rather than to the whole country. The north was against sectionalism and the south liked it. The North wanted the government to rule laws for the whole country and south wanted to have each state choose their own laws individually. south also wanted to return any runaway slaves. (Mrs. Wise) "the Fugitive
Former Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens claimed that the Civil War was fought because of state’s rights and how they wanted to fight back against federal tyranny. After reading the Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War, I agree that the war was fought because of state’s rights. The people in the South wanted to keep slavery and were going to do anything they could to keep slavery. They believe that the government was trying to oppress the South by making them get rid of their slaves.
“I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.” (Abraham Lincoln) The President himself knew something had to be done. He knew that otherwise the United States would no longer be United. The Civil War was the most bloody and gory fight that the United States ever had to endure, and it was with itself. At least six hundred eighteen thousand Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the total even reached seven hundred thousand. The Civil War was caused by a feuding union, that knew it would not survive if things continued on in the devastating ways they were. No decisions could be made, people were arguing and weren’t getting along, and eventually the war began. Two of the most important causes of the Civil War were the Abolition Movement, and the Election of 1860.