Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels

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.

The demonstrations of division in America coexisted many: utopian societies, clashes over public space, backlash alongside immigrants, urban rebellions, black demonstration, and Indian oppositions. America was a separated land in need of change with the South in the biggest demand. The South trusted heavily on agriculture, equally opposed to the North, which was vastly populated and an industrialized union. The South produced cotton, which remained its main cash crop and countless Southerners knew that hefty reliance on slave labor would damage the South ultimately, but their forewarnings were not regarded. The South was constructed on a totalitarian system.

The Civil War was fought because of rising tension between the North and the South. The war came to an end 1865. The last official battle was at Palmito Ranch. The Civil War was a war fought because people’s opinions and views were put at risk with the election of Abraham Lincoln because citizens knew he would be the one to end slavery. Southerners seceded from the United States in an effort to keep what they felt was economically necessary and essential to their way to life.

During the late 1800s, because the South had been decimated by the end of the Civil War, .the Reconstruction Period was initiated to aid the South’s recovery. Although the Civil War did abolish slavery and unify the North and the South, the war not resolve racial prejudice, the South’s damage, and the African Americans’ economic instability. The Reconstruction Period was initiated in order to prevent economic instability and the structural ruin, because since slavery was abolished, and the South was completely dependent on slaves, therefore slaves could not work for the South to maintain the economy, and slaves also could not fix up the damages done to the structures done to the South during the war. By starting the Freedmen’s Bureau and passing

Secondly the south wanted to leave the union because Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. In document 4 it states “She wrote this book to show that slavery was evil and that the Fugitive Slave Law was unjust. This would convince or show how evil and wrong slavery is and more people would want to abolish slavery. If they didn’t secede they would lose slavery. So to stop people in the South to be convinced that slavery is wrong the South left the union.

Interest in Central America and Cuba, 1849–1861", n.d.). The Southern States also wished to expand their territory to the West and popularize slavery which was not in line with the North’s vision of a slavery-free America. The differences led to the civil war, especially when the Republican Party actively opposed the westward expansion of slavery. The United States public wanted more territorial expansion after the successes in territorial acquisitions in 1940s because they wanted a bigger republican government. The expansionist movement of the pro-slavery South sought to spread more to the south and some believed they would spread as far as the Caribbean and Brazil.

In response, Southerners threatened to succeed from the union due to their view that this infringed on their individual rights and damaged the backbone of their livelihood. Additionally, the regional economies impacted views on westward expansion and whether new territories or states should permit the institution, such as California This resulted in a major increase in the stress between the regions due to each region wanting equal representation. Although members of the government attempted to compromise to even out the number of slave and non slave states, such as the Compromise of 1850, there were countless times that the two regions struggled over the laws of slavery and the territories that it should be permitted, further increasing the ideological and political divide and leading to the secession of the Southern states.

Their goal was to end the racial discrimination and segregation amongst. They believed that slavery was a sin and that it was every American’s obligation to help free them back to Africa. Not many people agreed though. Both Northerners and Southerners did not support he ways of goals of the abolitionist. They thought that it threatened the racial social order and created economic instability.

Due to the lack of technological advances at the time, the demand or need for fast, efficient, mass production of agricultural goods was only met by slave labor. Unfortunately, at the time slavery was by far the most efficient method of labor, and it served as a foundation for basic American economics, politics, and social issues. Slavery propelled the United States to the economic powerhouse that it is today largely due to success in the cotton and tobacco industries, so the need for slavery at the time was for rapid economic growth. Slavery at the time was also a huge sign of social status “buying a slave was a way of coming into their own in a society in which they were otherwise excluded from full participation” Buying slaves allowed slaveholders to buy their economic and social independence. The purchase of a

The Significance of the Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil War The Emancipation Proclamation was very significant to the Civil War because Abraham Lincoln brought it up as a war tactic to make the Confederates vulnerable and when it was passed it had a very huge effect on the direction the war was heading and what was happening. He believed that if the slaves of the Southern states were free then the Confederates could not keep them for themselves so that they could do their work for them or go into war for them therefore their army would be weaker and it would limit their power which would get in their way of beating the other side. The Confederates efforts would deteriorate and they likely would not be able to beat the other side.

Many believe it was a fight for the rights and freedom of slaves, so what was the main cause of the Civil War was the issue of states rights and the preservation of the Union than rather than the issue of slavery. The primary cause of the Civil War was the issue of slavery. “Slavery played an important role in changing the United States slaves didn 't had any right. ”(Overview of Slavery).

Consequently, the North and the South developed different societies and economies. During the 1830s, the abolitionist movement in the North viewed slavery as an immoral act and urged the end of slavery, which took away the liberty of slaves. In response to the abolitionism, many Southerners became more determined to defend slavery. This led to the splitting of free and slaves states. The North would have free states and the South would have slave states.

Review of the Killer Angels by Michael Shaara The Killer Angels is a fiction book authored by Michael Shaara and published in 1974 by Ballantine Books, in New York City. Shaara, an educator, and a novelist, was born in 1928 in Jersey City. In 1975, his book, the Killer Angels won the Pulitzer Prize for the best story telling novel. The book details the events of 1863 which occurred during the civil war of Gettysburg, in America (Shaara 3).

In 1850 America was a country that was young and reckless. In the 50’s we went through 3 presidents; Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. The safety pin, dishwasher, and sewing machine were invented. We had California, Minnesota, and Oregon joined the United States. When I step back and look at the 1850s, I see a solid decade in the further development of America, however, the selfishness that Southern Americans partook in, is disgraceful.