What Caused the Civil War? Slavery helped build the United States, but it did help disjoin it as well. The Civil War costed over 600,000 lives who were all fighting over one question. Should slavery exist or be abolished? After many years of compromise, one side had to finally be chosen. Men, sometimes brothers, fought against each other for four years, but the Union ended up winning and slavery was eradicated. Still, historians question the causes of the great American Civil War. The rising sectionalism between the North and South due to the opposing views on the morality of slavery and their contrasting economies strongly influenced the Civil War. A motive of sectionalism which caused the Civil War is the contradicting opinions of slavery …show more content…
Douglas, who is an African American, referred to the practice of slavery as a heartless and torturous practice and declared Americans as the worst sinners of the world (Document 4). The fact that Northerners were allowing a black man to express his opinions in public shown that they were not oppressive towards the African American race. Many Northerners agreed with him and concluded that slavery is a sin that must be ended immediately. However, Southerners, like George Fitzhugh, supported slavery. George, who represented the majority of the South, claimed that slavery was the greatest life an African American could lead. He believed that slaves enjoyed a carefree life without any hard labor (Document 5). His famous …show more content…
The North was industrial with a better and more reliable economy than the South. All the South had was cotton which was massed produced. Many areas that were used for cotton production also contained dense slave populations. (Document 1). Since both sections had a very diverse means of making income, they began to separate more as time passed. The North was producing about $1.5 billion in manufactured goods in 1861 compared to the South’s mere $155 million (Document 2). With the North producing about ten times more in value, the South became inferior and struggled for power. Also, all of the products in the North was made without any slaves at all, while the South relied on 3.5 million slaves to produce about five million bales of cotton that year. (Document 2). When the North threatened to take away slavery and the South’s livelihood, the South started to become agitated. In general, the South was forced to get all of its bare necessities from the North which included material for railroads, canals, and steamships (Document 3). The South could never survive without the North and the North knew this. In effect, the sections spread further apart causing sectionalism to expand between them. Eventually, the South got angry and attacked leaving no option for the North, but to retaliate back. The distinct economies of the North and South helped influence their
Although slavery is the most popular cause of the Civil War there are multiple issues that truly caused the Civil War. For the first time in American history there was a collapse two party system which had the country divided before the war truly broke out; which causes the turmoil after the election of 1860. The political problems that left the country divided had a direct link to the North and South’s different economic
The United States became increasingly divided between 1815 and 1840. The northern states and southern states developed independently from each other. America was more sectionalist than nationalist because the north and south disagreed over slavery, states’ rights, and economic policy. Perhaps the most obvious sectionalist issue was the conflict over slavery.
In the years of 1820s through the 1860s, a growing sectional conflict centered around slavery signaled the coming of a war between the north and the south, which almost tore down the union. According to some revisionist historians, Civil War, one of the greatest tragedies in the American history, was absolutely avoidable and resulted merely from “fanaticism and misunderstanding,” along with the failure of the political leaders to compromise; however, this is not the case. Looking back into history, the war was arguably made inevitable by the the cause of slavery. A series of factors in the antebellum age led to the outbreak of Civil War; these factors included social differences, economic issues, as well as political tensions generated by
Numerous factors led to the Civil War. The main issues were slavery and the right of the people. However, the main purpose of the Civil War was slavery. Slavery was causing the tension between the North and the South. Therefore, the most contributing factor to the Civil War was slavery because it was an economic issue to the South and a moral issue to the North.
After America became an independent country it was divided into the north region and the south region. There was a conflict between both regions; the north we anti-slavery while in the south slavery was the backbone of their living. Therefore they declared war on each other. When the civil war came in 186, America was not prepared. Due to the absence of professional and experienced leaders, both the north and south turned to the middle class to cooperate in the war including lawyers, teachers, businessmen as well as those with political experience.
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
There are various factors that lead to victory. That’s a fact for all competitions: battles and wars. Motivation, environment, population, and resources seem to be the biggest factors. The War for Independence, for example, was a war where most people could predict the outcome - an overwhelming British victory. However, the opposite happened.
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose” Lyndon B. Johnson. The civil war, a sad time for Americans, separated the country over slavery and states rights. This led to the deaths of over 600,000 Americans between Union and Confederate soldiers. Out of the eleven confederate states, Texas was one of them. Texans fought in the civil war to defend state’s rights, preserve slaves, and for the love of Texas.
The issue of slavery was a crucial factor in the North and South going to war in 1861 because those in the Southern states had relied on agrarian methods to maintain their livelihood such as tobacco, sugar and cotton. Southern cotton plantations held global dominance in the industry due to their unmatched efficiency and the use of slaves maximised profits. However, slavery cannot be seen as solely responsible for the North and South’s war in 1861. A key attributing factor was sectionalism, which led to secession and conflict following the rapid territorial expansion in the United States during 1846 to 1854; states had different agendas, environmental circumstances and beliefs regarding their rights. This was a key issue stemming from the formation
In the early to mid 1800s, there were debates between political parties, social groups, people with different ways of life, and more. The goal of these debates varied from wanting to get laws passed, wanting certain taboos to be eliminated, or just wanting to be left alone. However, these debates always sought to get the other side to agree, which almost never happened. In the 1830 to 1860 era, debates over slavery weren’t the most important factors that led to the Civil War. The most significant factors that led to the American Civil War were political, economic, and social issues of the time; the debates over slavery, at this time, were not the most important things that people of that era had to worry about.
Did you know, that the Civil War happened because of slavery not state’s rights, most Americans believe that. The Civil war happened in the years 1862 through 1865, and it was when the Northern and Southern States fought over slavery. What started the war was the Thirteenth Amendment which was passed to end all slavery,and it divided the country and into two, the states or people of America were either Confederate or part of the Union. The Confederates fought for keeping slaves since they needed them to work for free so they gained money and they didn’t need to pay them while the Union fought to free slaves since one of the nation’s principles was freedom and they wanted all to be free. Most importantly, back in those days, Americans thought
The Civil War was the biggest war in the American history as more Americans died than combined in all the other wars. I do believe that the war was ultimately fought over slavery as this was the only thing the southerners wanted. During the first half of the 19th century, while United States was growing as a nation, there was a huge drastic change in different factors such as population growth, economic growth, and westward expansion. While the North America was getting urbanized and industrialized, the southerners were still rural and wanted to expand slavery everywhere in the United States, which they also considered this as their state right which can never be justified.
The one particular cause of the Civil War is unknown because multiple components led to the nation's downfall during some of America’s crucial times. The Civil War began in 1861 after the northern and southern states argued over the controversy of slavery, westward expansion, and individual state rights. But due to the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, many southern states left the union to preserve slavery and cause conflict between the northern and southern states. During the period of the Civil war, slavery was a distinguished ideology that helped the nation overall in the economy and politically, so this reasoned why the southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America which supported southern
I agree with the statement: Slavery was the primary cause of the American Civil war, because some politicians wanted to abolish slavery in fear of the separation of the Union, also citizens in the northern states also were affected by slavery, and slavery also affected other races other that the blacks and the whites. The issue of slavery became a priority of the united states congress and thus the civil war began. The fear of the separation of the union was in the minds of many of the northern congressmen. For example in John C. Calhoun states in document A, “The agitation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by some timely and effective measure, end in disunion.”
The Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars in the history in America. The Civil War was fought between the North and the South because of slavery. Even though Texas was strongly connected with the Union, they were concerned about the attacks by the North. Texas believed that slavery was an important factor in order for the state to grow. Texas fought in the Civil War to protect states rights, for the love of Texas, and to keep slavery.