Civil War Sectionalism

In 1861, a Civil War broke out in the United States when the South declared their independence from the Union. There is a great amount of reasons that people can argue how the Civil War was started. However, what most people don’t understand, is that most of the events leading up to the Civil War were related to slavery. Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict, which led to a very vicious feud.

They also saw the law as something that enacted the crime of kidnapping and also as something that wasn’t covered in the Constitution. The whole compromise led to the rapid settlement of Kansas and Nebraska because the Compromise of 1850 led to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This rapid settlement was because in both Kansas and the Nebraska the issue over slavery would be determined by popular sovereignty. This rapid settlement led to Bleeding Kansas where a series of violent events occurred. Both sides of Slavery fought for control over the state of the Kansas Territory. The Democrats tried to force slavery upon free soilers who came to not allow slavery in Kansa because it was a new territory (Document F). This action showed great division in the union because of the differing views of Slavery and the constitutionality of many decisions.

The Kansas and Nebraska Act was also a major cause of political conflicts. It pressured popular sovereignty over those new territories. Kansas, according to the Northerners, was being pressured into becoming a slave state by having acts of violence be done against them. As well, people from Missouri were going into Kansas and using their power to vote for it as a slave state, and the North

The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)

Many causes led to the Civil War. This all happened around the mid 1800s. It was a conflict between the Northern and Southern states. Both sides had their own view on slavery, and their separate views caused contentions between the two. Both had different views on whether to expand or stop slavery growth to the West, or have slavery at all.

Sectionalism was ultimately the main cause of the civil war. Sectionalism is occurs when an individual identifies with a geographic section of the United States based on their culture, social, economical, and political interests of that section. Sectionalism eventually caused the division of the nation, and created parts of the nation, which were the Union and the Confederation. As the tensions progressed, the government strived to unite the divided nation by establishing different legislation to satisfy each section; however, multiple historical events, such as the Election of Abraham Lincoln, the passing of the Kansas Nebraska Act, etc, interrupted the balancing act within the divided nation. The tensions between these sections eventually built up and caused the Civil War to occur. The Civil War was caused by the various economical differences within the nation, the conflict between the legality of slavery, and the political disputes in Congress over issues during that time.

The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, in Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor after the Confederate artillery struck the Fort (“Florida’s Role in the Civil War”). After President Lincoln became the President of the United States, eleven states formed as Confederate states to separate themselves from the United States. The reason why those states separated from the United States was that they did not agree with President Lincoln’s decision to try to end all slavery. The Confederate states wanted to keep slavery going. Those eleven states were Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Virginia, and North and South Carolina. The rest of the United States were called the Union, even though there were some people that lived within the Confederate States that did not condone slavery and there were some people who lived in the Union states who did condone slavery. Fifteen years before Florida joined the Confederacy, Florida had just become part of the United States in 1845 (“Florida in the Civil

Document C written by Hilton Helper, a well known political writer from North Carolina, explains why southerners want to move westward, which is to expand and advance and prove that they’re not dependent of the north. Due to the different beliefs of the north and the south, each party felt as if the other would take over, especially the north. The northerners feared the southerners would push its peculiar institution on the entire union. Soon territories wanted to become states starting with Missouri. Once Missouri made this big step, it threatened the balance of the Slave and Free states. So to control the situation the constitution created the Missouri Compromise, which let Missouri enter the union as a slave state with the addition of Maine as a free state. This only created the periodicity use of compromise, which only kept sweeping the situation under the rug. Once this was over the United States went into war with Mexico due to a dispute over Texas and its western territories. There would’ve been a law passed for the dispute, but there were some unfair ideas involved so they threw it away, yet only to return it for revision when California wanted to join statehood. The revision was soon named the Compromise of 1850 and it reshaped the Fugitive Slave Act requiring northerners to capture slaves, and this caused uproar. The conflict simmered up once again when two huge territories were up for consideration, Nebraska and Kansas. Southerners were against it due to the Missouri compromise, which would have the states enter as Free States. The constitution tried to balance the situation by creating the Kansas-Nebraska Act; however it repealed the Missouri Compromise. In document J’s note it explained how the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and how those who were moving there would have to vote. Tension between the Sympathizers and the abolitionist were created when

“A house divided against itself cannot stand” Abraham lincoln had said during a republican meeting in 1858. During this time, many compromises were being made in order to keep the country together. Although the Missouri compromise and the compromise of 1850 attempted to keep the country together, these events and some others actually divided the nation and eventually led to civil war.

The Civil War came to be because the South seceded and declared war on the North. From the firing at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 to the surrender at Appomattox Court House, The Union (North) waged war against the Confederacy (South). The South seceded because of the balance of power in America. There was more free states, which would mean they would have a bigger voice in the Senate than the fewer slave states. To protect their way of life, they had to go to war. The war before Vicksburg was leaning towards the Confederacy, the Confederacy won battles, such as The 1st Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Shiloh, and Fredericksburg; meanwhile the Union’s only major victory was the capture of New Orleans but the true decider of the War was the Siege of Vicksburg. Vicksburg was the gateway to the Trans-Mississippi region from the eastern region, when it fell, it became the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

There were many reasons why the south got so angered by the north that they decided to secede from the union. One of the reasons was because of the differences in economy and the protective tariff between the north and the south. Another reason was because of the Election of 1850 where Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Because of these reasons, the south seceded from the union later leading to the Civil War.

Thesis: The Kansas-Nebraska Act negatively affected North and South relations because it introduced popular sovereignty, which further divided the nation on the topic of slavery, provoked physical violence in the new territory and drastically accelerated the start of the American Civil war.

Prior to Civil War, distinct Northern and Southern cultures had been established; The free North occupied the commercial industry, while the slavery-based South undertook an agricultural occupation. The South and the North began to fight over right and wrong. The major issue was regarding slavery, as the South wanted to preserve slavery while, the North wanted to get rid of it. These conflicts rose into sectional antagonism and eventually put the United States and President Lincoln in a loophole. During the Civil War however, Lincoln made some extremely controversial decisions, that resulted in a reduction of the sectional antagonism present, and the United States became truly “one nation.”

Abraham Lincoln’s statement in his 1858 speech that “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” is an extremely true statement that is as relevant today as it was when he originally stated it in 1858. Lincoln made this statement when he was accepting his nomination by the Republican Party to become the United States senator for the state of Illinois. Lincoln was attempting to distinguish himself from his opponent for the seat in the Senate, Stephen Douglas, who was a major supporter of the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Lincoln disagreed with Douglas because he believed that the United States could not

Sectionalism was the base for a series of conflicts that ultimately led to a brutal Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was a big factor in sectionalism. He kind of helped mend the country but didn’t make it whole.