The Inevitable Conflict The American Civil War was a bloody, horrific conflict that killed roughly a million people including civilians. The war lasted four entire years despite being mapped out as a short skirmish and easy victory for the long standing Union. Most people claim the war was fought over slavery, others argue it was fought for the protection of states’ rights. Regardless of the reasoning for a domestic war, it is just as important to understand what chain of events lead up to the first shot being fired. With sectionalism rendering the nation more and more divided, the Civil War may have been the only viable option to determine the final destination of our country’s government. A series of controversial legal decisions and radical actions ultimately lead to the Civil War. The North and Southern regions of the United States had been slowly drifting apart, largely due to their drastically different economies. The South’s capital depended solely on slave labor unlike the North which had a booming industrious economy ran by business moguls and cheap immigrant labor. Many Northerners, although racist, abhorred the idea of slavery. In the year 1850, amidst heated dispute over the territories won in the Mexican-American war, the great compromiser Henry Clay devised a series of acts known as the Compromise of 1850 to resolve the issue. One component of this compromise intended as a provision to the South, a stricter Fugitive Slave Act was passed which required
The name Civil War is misleading because the war was not a class struggle, but a sectional combat, having its roots in political, economic, social, and psychological elements. It has been characterized, in the words of William H. Seward, as the “irrepressible conflict.” In another judgment the Civil War was viewed as criminally stupid, an unnecessary bloodletting brought on by arrogant extremists and blundering politicians. Both views accept the fact that in 1861 there existed a situation that, rightly or wrongly, had come to be regarded as insoluble by peaceful means.
For instance, a tremendous part of the South’s agricultural economy were slaves, as plantation owners needed a surplus of workers to maintain the fields. If the South paid their workers, there would be an extreme amount of profit lost due to how many workers were necessary. Therefore, slavery was a part of the South’s economy and was essential to southern lifestyle. On the other hand, the northern industrial economy did not depend on slavery and instead depended on immigrants to work in the factories. These differences of slavery in the economy led to sectionalism in the United States, for northerners did not comprehend why it was necessary to enslave people when their industrial economy strived even without free laborers. After the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, the North’s sectionalist thinking was uncovered. Northerners were unhappy with the possibility of getting arrested for helping slaves escape, for the majority of the North believed slavery to be unfathomable. As a result, the North opposed the law and mobs were formed to prevent the Fugitive Slave Act’s enforcement. Henceforth, the North retaliated the similarly as the South did with the tariff of 1828; showcasing their sectionalist belief that their ideas of slavery were more important than the
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 Civil War of 1861 – 1865 remains one of the most tragic pages in the American history. It claimed about 700,000 lives and nearly destroyed the unity of the nation (American Civil War). Naturally, such a massive clash could not have burst out inadvertently. Decades of differences between the North and South had led to a full-scale military clash. Two events cannot be overlooked when analyzing the roots of the conflict: the Dred Scott case and Southern secession.
The fight between the union and a separate entity called the confederacy was a profound event in American History, but how did this development evolve? Slavery and democracy had existed for many years, making the Civil War avoidable, yet the course of events still led the United States to the outcome stated above. In order for one to understand this change, one must try to piece together the many instances that would tell him/her the reasons for a Civil War as destructive as the one fought in the eighteen hundreds between the North and the South. The Civil War was caused by the North’s and South’s viewpoints on slavery.
The Civil War was fought for a variety of reasons. Some think it was inevitable, some think it was avoidable, and some think it was a necessary part of our nation’s history that effected society today. The war occurred due to economic, political, and social issues. Some may even say morals played a part. According to Eugene Genovese, “Slavery gave the South a social system, and a civilization with a distinct class structure, political community, economy, ideology, etc.”
The Civil War in the United States was one of the most significant events in the history of the country. This is due not only to the outcome it provided, but more importantly to the actual events that took place during the war, the aspects it dealt with, and the questions it raised concerning humanity, courage, democracy, human rights, slavery, unity and union. Throughout the war, the causes, the tactics, and the context changed. Further, the motivation of the soldiers fighting in both armies changed in a decisive manner. Despite all, this remains one of the bloodiest events in the history of the American states.
The Civil War, which started in April 1861, marked a defining moment in United States history. The opposing forces that were in the Civil War were the Unions, Confederates, and the Cherokee Indians. The Unions and the Confederates believed in different things. The Confederates believed that it was okay to own people while the Unions believed that owning people was wrong. While the Cherokee Indians were split, some went the the Union side while others went to the Confederates side.
Some laws functioned to stem the tide of slavery, such as the Slave Trade Act of 1818, which served to “prohibit the introduction of slaves into any port or place within. . . the United States” (udayton.edu). Yet for each abolitionist victory, the Southern planation owners were well-prepared with legislation of their own for the purpose of maintaining the status quo. According to Rourk, and his colleagues, “the Fugitive Slave Act proved to be the most explosive of the compromise measures” (Rourk, et. al., 2009, p.481). This was because Northerners viewed it as an attempt to expand slavery beyond the South and to compel their participation in maintaining slavery, even if it defied their religious or personal morals. While Southerners may have believed that the law was justified, as it dealt with the return of what they saw as property, Northerners felt differently. The heart of the conflict between North and South includes a difference in viewpoint on the institution of slavery. The South saw economics as primary, while the Northerners increasingly saw economics as a secondary or tertiary concern after morality and unity.
Soldiers of the American Civil War were overwhelmed by a time where weaponry and technological developments were thriving. This brutal war changed the soldiers, both mentally and physically, and continued to have an impact throughout their entire lives. There were not only many deaths during the war, but also prior to the war as many soldiers took their own life. They would experience disturbing thoughts and events in their mind that could not be explained until they became known as mental illnesses. The exploration of psychological disorders following the Civil War improved medical diagnostic tools and the way patients were treated which transformed the treatment of mental illness by creating new ways of discovering illnesses, treating patients, and developing the foundation for the future of psychology throughout America.
A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.
When the American Civil War began in the spring of 1861, those flocking to enlistment stations in states both north and south chiefly defined their cause as one of preservation. From Maine to Minnesota, young men joined up to preserve the Union. From Virginia to Texas, their future foes on the battlefield enlisted to preserve a social order, a social order at its core built on the institution of slavery and racial superiority . Secession had not been framed by prominent Southerners like Robert Toombs as a defensive measure to retain the fruits of the revolution against King George, a fight against those who sought to “intrique insurrection with all its nameless horrors.” (Toombs Speech) On January 1, 1863, when Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect the war became a revolution. The Union, the soldiers in blue fought to preserve could no longer exist. On every mile of soil, they would return to the Stars and Stripes from that moment on, the fabric of society would be irrevocably changed. In May of 1865, with the abolition of slavery engrained into the Constitution with the passage of the 13th Amendment, the Confederate armies of Lee and Johnston disbanded, and Lincoln dead of an assassin’s bullet; this change was the only certainty the torn fabric of the newly reunited states was left to be resown. Andrew Johnson and Southern Democrats believed the revolution of 1863 had gone far enough. Radical Republicans and African-Americans sought instead to bring it to
The American civil war was the second most important war to Americans. The war was about a lot of things but mostly the end slavery. It was also called the War Between the States. It war between the southern and the northern states. Slavery was use for a lot of things it was use in the industrial revolution it was used for farming in the south. In the north were trade and import and export good. African’s were the most of the population of slaves. People thought slavery was a good thing. The masters would whip them if they didn’t do what they were told nor did a bad job at it. The master would tell the slaves they have it better the Jesus did when he was tortured. People would bring religion to everything. The president during the time was the great Abraham Lincoln. He was born in Kentucky. There was to teams the confederation and the union. The confederation was the south. The union was the north. The union had many people because there was draft and the slave were free in the north and would be able to join the army so they did in the north and the south. In New York there was a riot caused by the draft. Many people didn’t like that they could join that wasn’t part of the compromise. Every state in the north seceded and four states didn’t join the union or the confederation. One fact that is every surprising Kentucky never voted for President Lincoln for both terms. The greatest battle of the civil war was the battle of Bull Run. The most famous battle was the battle
In 1861, a horrific war began. Nobody had any idea that this war would become the deadliest war in American history. It wasn’t a regular war, it was a civil war opposing the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South.. The Civil War cost many people’s lives on the battlefield and beyond. In addition it cost an extreme amount of money for the nation which possibly could have been avoided if the war had turned to happen a little differently.
Abraham Lincoln once stated “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln is a hero for the citizens of America because his determination and courage to ending slavery even if it meant war caused peace in this nation. Slavery was the vital cause of the American Civil War. The north and the south both had their differences on how to run the country. People in the North believed in unity and that slavery should not exist because “all men are created equally.” On the other hand, the South believed in continuing slavery. People tried to talk it out and come to a middle ground after both sides compromising, however that didn’t work and caused war. Ideological differences were a vital role to making the American Civil War an inevitable event.