The American Civil War: The Seek Of Freedom

The Seek of Freedom

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”. Freedom has been the key element in the United States since the country was built. However, the slavery was being excluded while the white people were celebrating their independence from the Great Britain. As Martin Luther King, an anti-slavery leader, once said that freedom needed to gain by the oppressed, the slaves and the antislavery were bonded together to fight. As a result, the Civil War broke out. Slavery pushed the tension gradually toward the war along with a series of events: the publish of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Election of 1860.

The Novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin serves as a catalyst of the Civil

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed on May 30, 1854, which granted people the right to choose whether to be a free state or not within their territory. This act was strongly supported by the South, but disagreed by the North. Many people from both South and North migrated to Kansas and Nebraska, and tried to influence the election. The South was charged with fraud by the North, subsequently, the election yield nothing. The second election was soon established, nevertheless, the result turned out to nothing as well. As a result, a war broke out. The president of the South sent armies to stop the war, and then held a third election, the election which ended up the same way as the first two. So, on January 29, 1861, Kansas became a slave-free state. The pro-slavery were really mad about the result and how the anti-slavery treated them. Oppositely, the North was very happy because they enlarged their territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was one of the first few crisis what occured between the two political groups. The war within the states was like a small version of the Civil War that increased the alienation between anti-slavery and pro-slavery, which later led to the Civil

On November 16, 1860, an election was held between Abraham Lincoln, who was a republican, against John Cabell Breckinridge and John C. Bell, who were federalists. The federalists believed that Lincoln brought chaos to the United States; and the republicans disagreed with the centralization of power in the Southern states. So the result ended up with the triumph of Lincoln. As a result, the Southerners formed the Confederate states of America; and elected Jefferson Davis as the president. The Confederate states also issued their own Constitution, which was basically based on the United States Constitution, except the Southern Constitution defended slavery. The election separated the nation in half and also urged 7 states including South Carolina seceded from United States. From then on, the pro-slavery and anti-slavery were officially against each other, which soon gave rise to the Civil War.

In conclusion, the issue of slavery precipitated the Civil War. Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave a strong social effect on opposing slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the prelude of the Civil War, and the Election of 1860 splitted the nation into two sides, which directly led to the War. Notwithstanding that the anti-slavery won the war, there were still many prejudices in the world. So, whenever people were about to criticize or being racist, thought about the effort that people in the past, who spent their entire life only