Pushing America Towards Civil War Research Paper

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the startlingly truthful and heart-wrenching novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She was angered by the new and stricter Fugitive Slave Law and created this novel, emphasizing the cruel separation of families in order to inflame the North. She owed the creation of it to God and said “her anti-slavery sentiments lay in the evangelical religious crusades of the Second Great Awakening.” Stowe’s novel sold millions of copies, transformed into plays and opened the eyes of American people, to the injustice of slavery. Arguably, this novel even helped the North win the Civil War: It was read by a profuse amount of youth in the 1850’s who would inspired to fight because what Uncle Tom’s Cabin portrayed. Additionally, it was an impetus for people up North to not enforce the Fugitive Slave Law. Five years later to when this novel was published Hinton Helper’s novel, The Impending Crisis of the South made its debut. Helper was a non-aristocratic white in the South and his novel utilized statistics in order to help prove that the non-slaveholding whites were the real victims of the Peculiar Institution. This novel was banned from the South, however countless copies were sold in the North. This novel, as did its former, reduced the South’s ability to live under the same roof as their anti-slavery brothers up North.

The Civil War split the nation in half. It tore apart families, and Union soldiers against Confederate soldiers for four miserable years. From the first shots fired at Fort Sumter 1861, and ending with a unanimous Confederate victory in 1865. All in all 630,000 people died and many thousands wounded. The deaths in the Civil War totally surpassed the death totals from any other war (1). For those managed to survive the up hill battle just began, they faced many unknowns in a world moving in an uncertain direction. With the north beating the succeeded south in the war, politicians faced a hard task of reuniting the divided country. With reconstruction now in affect, both northern workers, and southern farmers now face many new obstacles and

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was so popular that it was translated into more than 60 languages(Harriet Beecher Stowe). Because of the book, it caused Northerners to accuse the Southerners of treating slaves badly. In turn, the Southerners accused Stowe of exaggerating how they treated their slaves and said that Stowe didn’t know that much about slaves and just made up some of the things in the book. Stowe responded to this by writing a book called Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This book lists all resources she used to help write her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin(Randolph 67). However, the book caused the Northerners to not cooperate with the Fugitive Slave Act, therefore picking up an argument with the South. The argument caused the Civil War(Hillstrom 431).

At the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, Confederate General Robert E Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to the Union General, Ulysses S. Grant, ending the bloodiest war so far in American history.

When asked the question, “Was the Civil War Inevitable”, the answer was straightforward to me. I think it was inevitable, because the North and South had many different views and opinions on certain issues. As a result of these differences, many conflicts began. One example, being the Wilmot Proviso in 1846, when many northerners feared the southerners would extend slavery into the West.

The North and South differed greatly economically. The southern communities were still lagging behind, relying on slave labor to keep their plantations producing. They made their money through farming and plantation work. There were a few that held a majority of the money. These people were the elite plantation owners. Pierce Butler, for example, owned Butler Island and was one of the wealthiest plantation owners. The South also followed the Culture of Deference. They believed that God put them in their places on purpose and that they should follow as He had planned. They relied on the bible to justify slavery. The northern communities, on the other hand, wanted change. They were

The Civil War was started on April 12, 1861 when Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter. About 620,000 young men lost their lives during the Civil War due to combat, accident, starvation and disease. (Civil War Facts Pg1) Two-thirds of these men died from disease. The theory of Germs had not been accepted by doctors yet and modern day antiseptics back then did not exist to prevent the spread of bacteria. This is the most men lost in combat in our nation’s history due to the fact that both sides were Americans.

After thoroughly assessing past readings and additional research on the Civil War between the North and South, it was quite apparent that the war was inevitable. Opposed views on this would have probably argued that slavery was the only reason for the Civil War. Therefore suggesting it could have been avoided if a resolution was reached on the issue of slavery. Although there is accuracy in stating slavery led to the war, it wasn’t the only factor. Along with slavery, political issues with territorial expansion, there were also economic and social differences between North and South. These differences, being more than just one or two, gradually led to a war that was bound to happened one way or another.

One of the most important wars in the US history was the Civil War. During the 1860’s, a time where slaves were property of people and they took and stripped identity away from them by buying and selling them, whipping them and use them for cheap labor. “Most of the fighting men in that war were neither professional soldiers nor draftees—they were volunteers. The dominant themes in their wartime letters were homesickness and a longing for peace” (The Civil War: Why they fought). Slaves fought for their freedom and their identity.

The battle between armies did not begin until 1861, however the conflict within the Country began at its founding. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence which included “all men are created equal; and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” he unintentionally yielded abolitionists stimulation in contradicting the institution of slavery. Despite the controversy slavery faced at the Constitutional Convention, the inclusion of the fugitive slave law, the extension of the African slave trade and the three-fifths clause were added with compromise, in anticipation of founding a Constitution and securing the Union, however it would

The American Civil War, which began in 1861 to 1865, has gone down in history as the one of the most significant events to have ever occurred in the United States of America, thus far. At that time, questions had arose wondering how the United States ever got so close to hitting rock bottom, especially being that it was a conflict within the country itself. Hostility steadily grew through the years dividing the nation further and further, and finally leading to the twelfth day in April 1861 in Fort Sumter, North Carolina. The American Civil War was an irrepressible battle and aside from the obvious physical effects of the war, the disagreement over states rights, the act of slavery, and the raising of tariffs played crucial roles in the

Harriet Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, altered Northerners to the horrors of Southern slavery. The book was widely read, but quickly banned in the South from fear of revolt. The Dred Scott case in 1857 outraged many in the North because the case claimed the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and did nothing to close the door to slavery in the North. Although the regions had originally planned to compromise, the events of the 1850’s served as proof that a compromise on the issue of slavery would be

The question that has been asked in our discussion post this week is it our opinion that the Civil War was inevitable? After reviewing, several reasons brought the North and South to battle during the Civil War which played a large part in the way our economic and political structure is today. A few of those reasons included slavery, distinctive economic interests, and the breakdown within the political parties (Alchin, 2016). While learning about the facts of each side, the North seemed to advance at a greater pace than the South due to taking advantage of the market, communication and transportation revolutions (Schultz, 2013). The South was slower to make a move to improve because they depended on cotton and the slaves that cultivated

As a result of the U.S. Civil War, many newly freed slaves were in search of a better life as free men. With help from Congress in March of 1865, an organization known as the Freedmen’s Bureau was created with the intentions of helping the freedmen and their families. The organization was the first of its type to be established federally for the main purpose of social welfare. With leadership from many military Generals, the Bureau was able to provide the freedmen with necessities such as clothing, land, food, hospitals, housing and most importantly schools. Education had been a major demand since the first days the slaves were freed. Freedmen were given educational opportunities through what would be known as the Freedmen’s Bureau Schools. Eventually over time, the number of blacks attending schools had grown to be thousands. The Freedmen’s Bureau Schools would have had longevity and more educational opportunities for freed slaves after the Civil War if not for Congress interruption.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is said to have contributed to the Civil War because it brought the evils of slavery to the attention of Americans more vividly than any other book had done before ("Harriett's Life"). The novel made people who had never really thought about slavery realize how cruel and unjust it was. It also turned many