FREE ESSAY ON THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

The American Civil War
The Civil War was a brutal war between the North and South of America over the issue of
slavery, which was spurred on by the secession of the southern states from the Union of a
America.
At the time slavery was one of the main issues in America that caused a disagreement
between the north and south and these disagreements about humanity and slaves added to
the tension that would finally lead to the out break of war.
Slavery was almost totally abolished in the northern states after 1787 when the
Constitution was drafted at the Philadelphia Convention and slavery was looked upon as
the 'peculiar institution' of the southern states, by the north. The southern states
looked upon slavery as a way of life and were in no way prepared to give up what they
felt was there property and a very important part of their cotton and farming production.
Another implication that caused great tension between the north and south over the issue
of slavery was that even though their were anti-slavery supporters in the south; some of
the abolitionists of the north would write notices and say that all southerners were evil
and cruel slave owners, who would treat their slaves badly. This angered the southerners
who felt that the northerners were just being hypocrites and didn't know what they were
talking about, which turned pro anti-slavery southerners into stronger supporters of the
south.
It was thought by some anti-slavery groups in America that slavery would die out because
America had in 1808 stopped the participation in the international slave trade, which
meant no supplies of new slaves would be coming in. But this theory proved wrong because
slavery in the south began to expand due to the great demand of raw cotton from cotton
mills of the Industrial revolution from overseas places like Britain. Also the
cotton-based expansion of slavery came due to the invention of the cotton gin, by Eli
Whitney in 1793, which cleaned the cotton plant and refined it on a mass scale. The south
started more tension over slavery when they decided they had to expand their territory
westwards and gain more states because other wise they would be out voted in congress and
slavery would be abolished completely, also they needed new land to replace all the over
used farming land in the other southern states. 
The Abolitionists were another factor that came into the tension point of slavery. People
such as William Lloyd Garrison who published the newspaper, "The Liberator", which
attacked southern slave owners. Making them and the slave traders out to be criminals. He
and followers of his such as Wendell Phillips used these accusations against the
southerners based on the fact that they said that slavery was a sin in the Christian
religion and was in general, immoral. Another abolitionist that fought hard for the
abolishment of slavery was Fredrick Douglass, an ex-slave who escaped from slavery and
urged other black people to do so. Douglass became the "station-master and conductor" of
the Underground Railroad in Rochester, New York which helped fugitive slaves escape to
the north since the southerners had congress pass the Fugitive Slaves Act in 1850. This
act meant that all American citizens had to help recapture fugitive slaves and that all
Negroes were assumed slaves unless they could prove they were free. Douglass also
established the abolitionist newspaper North Star, which he edited until 1860. Books such
as Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was published 1852 helped to
strengthen the anti-slavery feeling in the North. Finally as one historian described the
figure, "that was the single most important factor on bringing on the war", was the most
extreme abolitionist, John Brown. Brown believed that he was 'an agent of God' and
dedicated his life to the abolishment of slavery and believed the way to achieve it was
by using force. He was a member of the radicals, who tried to abolish slavery by defying
the law and not a member of the gradualists who tried to abolish slavery through legal
means. Brown and his sons went to Kansas to fight against the pro-slavery terrorists
there and finally his last venture was in 1859 when he and 18 men seized the US Arsenal
at Harpers Ferry, Virginia and won control of the town. Later the US marines under the
command of Robert E. Lee arrested and charged Brown with treason and murder, he was
hanged on the 2 December. People such as this contributed greatly to the cause against
slavery that in the end was one of the most important causes of the start of the Civil
War.
The second major cause of the American Civil War was the extremely different societies of
North and South. The north was none slave owning, as I've already mentioned, and the
south was slave owning; these were not the only differences in their two societies. The
South was extremely agricultural, produced cash crops-cotton, tobacco and sugar cane,
which they would export either to the north or to Europe. The North on the other hand was
very industrial, with many factories with paid laborers, and manufactured much of the
equipment that the south required for their economic structure. Not only were their two
economic structures different but also were their life styles and the parts of America
that they lived in. In the South there was a tropical climate with rivers and land
inhabited by wild animals, such as alligators. Also the people in the south had different
accents and they lived much a different lifestyle to the Northerners. In the North they
too had a different climate, one where it would snow in winter and in general would be
much colder then the south. Their lifestyle was very formal compared to the south and
lastly the two sides had very different political ideas. These differences made the North
and South seem like completely different nations and in the end led to a crucial cause to
the start of the war. 
The third and most important cause that finally led up to the war was Secession. But
before the actual secession act happened there were other events that led up to this
point. Firstly the Nullification crisis which happened in 1832-3 when the state of South
Carolina declared the US's tariffs to be unconstitutional by declaring this, the state
put the 'nullification doctrine' in to operation. They used this to basically show that
if the federal government were to exceed their powers, such as abolish slavery, any or
all states could nullify this action, in other words a precedent. Later the controversy
was resolved through a compromise which modified the US tariff but the wider issue
remained and states such as South Carolina hung onto their right to nullify what ever
they felt was unconstitutional. Later their came compromises such as the Compromise of
1850 where newly acquired states such as California were admitted to the union as none
slave states but states like Utah and New Mexico, were set up with a choice of slavery or
not and this would be decided by the settlers in the area. Then came the Missouri
Compromise where slave-owning Missourians applied for statehood this started a problem as
it upset the balance of free and slave states which were 11 each at the time. This
compromise led to the formation of the Republican Party that was committed to preventing
the spread of slavery. Later it was to become clear that the issue of slavery in western
expansion of starting new states and settlement had divided North and South and there
would be no compromise to settle it, instead civil war would come.
After all these hostile compromises and westward expansion in 1860 there was a general
election where Abraham Lincoln was elected into power. Lincoln was not an abolitionist
but believed that, "All men should have equal rights" and not just white men. He wanted
to halt the spread of slavery but not destroy it immediately. To the Republicans Lincoln
was a moderator but to the southerners he was an evil figure that became a sign that the
union was to become radicalized. Just after the election of Lincoln South Carolina,
followed by six other Southern states, took steps to secede from the Union. Although
secession was illegal the union had no power to oppose it and all alternative compromises
failed and so in February 1861 a new southern government was inaugurated as the,
"Confederate States of America." This new government drafted its own constitution and
elected its own president, General Jefferson Davis who was a Kentuckian like Lincoln. An
as Lincoln so wisely said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand", which meant
America divided in two couldn't carry on. 
So that April morning in 1861 when the confederate army opened free fire on Fort Sumter a
fort being held by the union on southern soil, it would be the final act that all these
causes and tensions that I've mentioned would finally have built up to. Which would have
set off one of the most horrific wars of all time.
And as most Americans describe it, "It was a war that defined America's character." 
Bibliography
Encarta 2001