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Civil War Dbq Essay

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The years of 1861 through 1865 are known as the Civil War. This was a time of bloodshed, broken families, and a torn nation. The United States of America had become the depressing picture of a war and politically torn nation. The number question whenever we as humans arrive to a bad scenario is, “How did I end up here?”. The causes of the Civil War were all based off of two different economic and political ideas, the acts made by the government concerning the differences, and morals. The number one issue concerning the cause of the Civil War is the great divide between the Confederate South, which believed in slavery and the Union North, who didn’t agree with slavery or the spread of it. The two territories were against each other but also …show more content…

Documents J, K, L, M, and N give examples of how the U.S. government became more involved in the country’s political divide. Document J talks about the Kansas-Nebraska act and how it wasn’t for the U.S. government to decide what states were free and not. It was now based off of the idea of popular sovereignty. Each state got to choose their respective choice based on their morals. The map in the document shows the states and their choices. This act caused states to be more divided and a clash between “pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters for Kanas.” From this I can conclude, that the bitterness between the two ideas of slavery caused issues, which added more fuel to the Civil War. Document K is about the attack of Charles Sumner for using his freedom of speech to attack pro-slavery supporters and how one angry pro-slavery supporter responded. This claim is supported through an illustration of the angry slavery supporter, Preston Brooks, beating Charles Sumner with his cane. The caption of the illustration is “southern chivalry’ which is ironic because the South is known for being sweet and having great hospitality. From this I can conclude that America was beginning to strongly turn on each other after this point, which fueled the start of the Civil War even more. Document L is about the Dred-Scott decision. This was controversial because Scott lived in a free state and his old master had died, meaning he should technically have rights to be free. Scott was denied by the Supreme Court. The Fifth Amendment says “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law”. Scott was still held back from the “political community” even though a U.S. amendment gives him the right to be free. From this I can conclude that, at this point the government was holding back any black they could from living a full life to keep their

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