Often large, puzzles frequently consist of a thousand pieces. In order to complete a puzzle, each piece needs to be set in its proper place and connected to the rest of the surrounding pieces. The American Civil War, much like a gigantic puzzle, had many pieces that all fit together and led to the great picture of war. Although not the “single cause” of the civil war, as James Rhodes asserted, slavery played a piece in the puzzle of events leading up to the American Civil War. The matter of slavery played as a piece of the puzzle in the civil war. Southerners had a twisted way of viewing people with a darker skin tone of theirs and James Henry Hammond asserted that, “In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life.” He went on to proclaim that, “Fortunately the South…found a race for this purpose. A race inferior to her own” [L]. Strongly disagreeing, Abolitionists in the North perceived the black people not an as inferior race but rather “entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man” [P]. Helping to flame these …show more content…
John Calhoun of South Carolina believed that the equilibrium had been broken and that the North “ha[d] the exclusive power of controlling the government, which [left] the other without any adequate means of protecting itself against its encroachment and oppression” [D]. This equilibrium was broken due to the North allowing California in as a free state and New Mexico by popular sovereignty [C]. Southerners believed that, “the territories of New Mexico and California, [were] purchased by the common blood and treasure of the whole people,” and became enraged that the North would, in essence, steal something they perceived as theirs too [B]. Due to this the country again slips further apart on the way to a total
Calhoun then warned that Southerners would "feel bound by every consideration of interest and safety to defend it" (Calhoun, 1850). Calhoun clearly believes that the initial balance of power in the country was destroyed, and the majority of power now resides in the North. At the time he wrote this speech, the North had 20 states and 40 senators, compared to the 14 Southern states with 28 senators (Calhoun, 1850). Calhoun lays the blame of the destruction of equilibrium between the states at the feet of the legislative government in the forms of the South being excluded from the "common territory belonging to all the states"(Calhoun, 1850), and disproportional taxation on the South and Southern imports with a large portion of proceeds going to the North. This was a commonly held belief in the South, and many were angered by much of their revenue and wealth going to the North in the guise of taxes and tariffs. They blamed this redistribution of money as unfairly benefiting and adding to the wealth of the North. They saw this imbalance also as an encouragement to immigrants to stay in the North, which also increased the wealth and population there. Calhoun himself spoke of this, and again stated that the "loss of equilibrium is to be attributed to the action of the government"(Calhoun, 1850). While
Before the civil war began slaves in the United States had neither rights nor liberties. This would be particularly true in most southern states. The movement of the civil rights began slightly before the civil war had ended. Written by President Lincoln the Emancipation Proclamation was a small but undoubtable first important step, towards giving African American slaves freedom. Aimed towards the states that seceded from the union and which still contained slavery, this document was meant to free those slaves. And in turn allow them to enroll in the union army. With this added strength to the union, the south had no choice but to surrender. Although slavery did not completely end, it did give them the liberty to fight towards the common goal of freedom.
One country, divided between the North and South, fighting each other- each hoping to achieve victory. A devastating and long four years was coming for the soldiers- the Civil War. Texas, the seventh state to secede from the North, contributes about 65,000 soldiers to the Confederacy, however, almost one-fifth of them lost their lives. So, there is one question that looms over us all- why did Texans choose to risk their lives for such a cause- why did Texas fight in the Civil War?
The political turmoils of nineteenth century America gave way to a massive Civil War which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The United States were divided geographically and ideologically. The North was an industrial powerhouse based on (relatively) free labor that focused on factories and manufactures. In its economy it had no need for slaves and was dead set against the very institution of slavery. On the other hand, the south was the agricultural center of the U.S.A. and relied heavily on a large slave population to do most of the manual labor. The election of 1860 pitted these two different world views against each other. The pro slavery Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge and the abolitionist Republican Abraham Lincoln were
There are various issues that led to the secession of the South, and eventually to the American Civil War. From the time period of 1846 to 1860 many things occurred that contributed to the shift to war and the secession of Southern States, but three things that brought forth both the secession and war was The Bleeding of Kansas, John Brown’s Raid, and the election of Abraham Lincoln.
What political challenges, from both individuals and political parties, did Lincoln face prior to the 1864 election?
The Civil War was a result of one main topic, which was slavery. Slavery was a largely controversial issue that was considered by different people in many different ways. When the government seemed to take little action, some people decided to take their own actions, leading to further conflict. Many events led up to the war itself, however, including new territorial issues, the Compromise of 1850, and Lincoln's won election.
When examining defining moments in history, one must first analyze what led to the central event. In this case, one sees that the years following the American Revolution were very important to the historical timeline. During the 19th century, two regions with very different beliefs strongly contradicted each other. This plagued the nation, ultimately leading to the decimating battle of The Civil War. It is evident that the rapid expansion of slavery during this time unfolded and ignited a series of controversies that were evident in the political, economic, and social problems that slavery’s expansion created.
The period following the Civil War was a period of profound change in the South and the North following the end of slavery. For former slaves were in a difficult position following the war they had received their freedom, but not much else. For the freedmen there was a brief belief that freedom would grant them everything that they needed to succeed. They wanted an equality of rights with whites. Frederick Douglass said that “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot” (Foner 89). African-Americans wanted these rights to guarantee their status as citizens who would not be dominated by their former Confederate neighbors. Former slaves as also wanted land to work on under their own terms. “To the former slaves, the war with
I believe, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the differences the northern and southern states' had about the abolishment slavery played a major role in why the civil war was fought. Abraham Lincoln thoughts about slavery and the state’s rights to avoid the abolishment of slavery were different. Abraham was an anti-slavery republican who believed slavery was bad for business and he did not want to see slavery spread to other parts of the United States. He was a strong believer that you could get more people to work for money vs working for free. The ideal of people being enslaved for work was not only cruel, but it also wasn’t benefiting America’s financial state. Although, Lincoln was personally against slavery, he never said he wanted
The Civil war is known to be the bloodiest American War, one that has tainted our history forever and is so significant that is taught to young children. The war had started with the whole conflict on how slavery should be handled with, leading to a bunch of arguments up in the North and the South. Until the south had said “Enough!” and decided to make its separate government for they had no longer agreed to the constitution and government, this is how the war had started. This war was about whether the south should be able to separate from the Union, it was only until the Emancipation Proclamation that everything had changed. That is when finally, when President Abraham Lincoln had decided to make the war about slavery. He made it all about
The civil war began on April 12th, 1861, and ended on May 9th, 1865. It had lasted about four years. The war was between the North and South. Northern states fought to abolish slavery and southern fought for slavery and states rights. At the time our president was Abraham Lincoln. All battles were bloody and worth a fight. The result of the war reunited us together as one.
The North and South felt like it was necessary because they couldn’t come up with a civil solution. After the civil war in 1865 reconstruction was the national effort to reintegrate the north and south so they could work together as one nation without slavery.
Before the civil war, different tribes had been relocated and given monthly payments to compensate for America’s actions. Unfortunately, during the war, the Union fell behind on its payments to the different tribes. Some tribes just sat and suffered, but others made raids on settlements and fought settlers in rage. This was met with severe force; many Native Americans - women, children, and men - were killed and others were relocated, again.
The civil war caused a great tear in our nation diving us all.Based on documents examined and my knowledge of the civil war,the civil war was fought over issues of slavery, economics, abolitionists and the rights of individual states to live free.In this essay I will be going over the topics of slavery,election of Abraham Lincoln and economic differences and how they were a cause of the civil war.