Essay On Why Did The South Want To Expand Slavery Cause The Outbreak Of War

I believe that dispute on slavery was the largest of the causes of the Civil War, and it led to more disagreements between the North and South. After reading the South Carolina Declaration of Secession, the Georgia Declaration of Secession, and the Constitution of the Confederate States; March 11, 1861, I have determined that slavery holds the most blame for starting the Civil War. Just as the colonists fought the Revolutionary War for their independance from Great Britain, the South fought the Civil War to gain independence from the Union. The main reason the South wanted independence was that they feared they would lose slavery if the remained in the Union. The majority of the South believed that it was a right of the states to have slaves,

When Texas was annexed into to the U.S. in 1845, approximately 77,000 Mexicans were living in the state, who had the choice of either becoming citizens or moving back Mexico. Those who stayed maintained peace with the Anglo families and leaders for over 50 years after the annexation. However, there soon came a large rush of new Anglos from all over the country. These new residents created rivalries and competition between them and the older residents. With the Mexican Civil War going on in Mexico more Mexicans immigrated to the U.S. mostly settling in Texas, for jobs in the mining and railroad industries. The nearby civil war made many people believe that a civil war was going to happen in Texas between the two groups of residents. This created, as stated in the book No Mexicans,

Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836 in a battle at the Alamo. This then lead to border confusion, being that the Americans and Mexicans thought that the Rio Grande was a proper border for Mexico and Texas, as to where Mexico thought the border should have been the Nueces River. At the time Texas wanted to join America and had applied for annexation twice. The Alamo was religious building that was turned into a fort during a battle for Texas’s independence from Mexico. The Rio Grande and the Nueces River where two rivers that boarded the disputed territory of Mexico and Texas. An annexation is to become a member, or a part of something; to merge.

The Annexation of Texas was one of the most debatable events in American history. The question at hand would deeply impact the United States for generations to come. There was on one side a long list of reasons for why to not allow annexation, but there was the same kind of list on the other side for reasons to push forward for annexation. Some of these reasons of both sides were slaves, war, manifest destiny, politics , and constitutional rights. Also the way Texas began in a way said that they should be apart of the United States In the end there were more important reasons for annex Texas into the union, than to leave Texas the was she was.

Why did the annexation of Texas cause political, military, economic, cultural, and moral controversy in the United States?

For four years, Americans fought against one another on the battlefield. This war would come to make up the bloodiest war in American history. Over the four years, over 620,000 soldiers died in the conflict. This war became one the most traumatic event in American History. Since the beginning of colonization to the 1860’s, the people in this country were slowly being divided. From 1850 to 1861, it was apparent that the union was separating into the North and the South and battle was soon to follow. With this division, peace could not continue amongst the country, for the country was filled with problems that affected the common Americans. With the events that led up to the war, the South felt like they had every reason to secede from the

For the longest time of when Texas was not free, slavery was prohibited in Mexico. This greatly upset the Texans due to the immense passion of wanting the territory to be slave driven. A man named Benjamin Lundy who organized abolitionist societies in the antislavery movement wrote this: “The immediate cause and main goal of this war - led by the slaveholders of this country - has been to grab the large and valuable territory of Texas from the Mexican Republic, in order to establish the system of slavery; to open a vast and profitable slave market; and, ultimately, to annex it to the United States.” (Document D). In this quote, Lundy declares the fact that Texas has ulterior motives than just wanting independence; instead, the now free state was hoping to continue slavery in America.

Manifest Destiny were the words heard around America. The United States had doubled its land in the Louisiana Purchase and they wanted to keep expanding because they believed it was “allotted by Providence[God]” (Doc A) to stretch from “sea to shining sea.” After the Texas revolution, the United States was presented with the opportunity of annexing Texas and getting land. The president at the time was Polk,who also had his eyes set for California.

However, not every idea of expansionism was happy. Others people wanted to expand America because of fear. In Document F it states, “None can fail to see the danger to our safety and future peace if Texas remains an independent state, or becomes an ally or dependency of some foreign nation more powerful than herself.” After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1835, Texas could not cede the American Union because it needed to enter America with a free state (a state with no slavery) because of the Missouri Compromise (the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 in which stated that there would be no slavery in the Louisiana Territory above the 36th parallel). Since there were no other states to enter with Texas, Texas had to remain as an independent state for about ten years (1835- 1845). During that time, people urged for a state to enter as a free state with Texas because, since Texas was not a part of America, it could do whatever it wanted. Things like joining a different nation or starting a war with America were options that were available for Texas. That is why many

If I were a voting member of Congress during the debate over Texas annexation and war with Mexico, I would vote against. At this point in history Texas was having economic and military problems, and that was one of the reasons why the Republic of Texas wanted to join the federal union. That would cause us to lose large amount money and possibly get us into debt. Also, even if texas joined the union it would still retain its geographical and economic vitality regardless of whether it joined or not. It would be unnecessary because we would be wasting thousands, or even millions, of dollars on something would not even befit the United States

After the Cotton Gin was invented, it increased the need for slaves and made cotton the chief crop of the South. “The South was able to produce 7/8 of the world’s supply of cotton.” (Axelrod 15) This made the South's dependence on the plantation system slavery. By then, the North was growing industrially. The north feared that South’s slave-based economy might affect their economy. The North depended on factories and other industrialized businesses. As for this reason many of new immigrants settled north, while few settled south. This allowed the North to grow industrially, while making the South feel more threatened by them. The Confederacy opposed any kind of industrialization and manufactured as little as possible. Southern

Annexation of Texas: making Texas a state after it was its own republic (page 394)

In 1860, the world's greatest nation was locked in Civil War. The war divided the country between the North and South. There were many factors that caused this war, but the main ones were the different interpretations of the Constitution by the North and South, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the arrival of

Slavery as an issue was always at the forefront of national politics, whether we consider the Missouri Compromise and the balance created of one state slave, and one state free, or the gag rule in Congress which restricted the discussion of the very issue. However, in the Presidencies of John Tyler and James Polk the main topic accompanying slavery was its expansion and none illustrated this more than Texas. Texas although formally a state of Mexico, starting at the beginning of the century was being flooded by migrants from the South, slave-owning migrants who represented a trend of the time illustrated by Document A which showed the gradual shift of slaves from the more condensed areas of the Old South the fertile pastures of the West. This was all in search of land to grow cash crops, this always was in the background of the Texas issue, Texas may have been a catalyst to speed the process along but the process was on its merry way. Mexico was displeased at the large numbers of Protestant slave-owning Americans at their borders and although it called for no slaves within its borders the calls went unheeded. Finally the newly elected President Santa Anna decided

One of the largest issues at the moment is Manifest Destiny, and if it actually applies to Texas, should we annex Texas to follow our “God Given Right”, or deny them to reduce risk of war? If we do decide to allow them to enter, Mexico would be very displeased with us, and because of that, we would be displeased with them, resulting is a high chance of war with Mexico.