Of the three causes, slavery is for me the most significant. The issue of slavery, unlike economic issues, was also a moral problem. Whether and where slavery should be allowed in the West would eventually result in Americans killing each other, the collapse and split of political parties, and national division. It began with the Missouri Compromise, when settlers to that state brought with them about 10,000 slaves. Missouri’s request for admission to the Union created a debate over the expansion of slavery.
Assess the factors that led to the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 The main factor that caused the American Civil War in 1861 was slavery as it was the underlying fundamental division between Northern and Southern societies that made living in harmony impossible. However, we must also examine the economic disparity between the North and South, political failure to manage the situation and the impact of the election of Lincoln in 1860. Although slavery is the underlying reason, the civil war would not have happened if it were not for the financial divide that developed because of slavery. These core factors were exacerbated by political mismanagement, a catalyst for the outbreak of the Civil War and Lincoln’s election in 1860, the trigger factor. Despite this, had it not been for slavery, there would have been no initial divide between North and South which created economic disparity and led to Southern paranoia over Northern expansionism which led to war, thus the most important factor.
The American Civil War was fought over a few reasons, but slavery is thought to be the major reason for the war and even today, slavery is "front and center" as the reason for the war. Ultimately, the American Civil War was the result of economic, social, and political differences between the Northern States and the Southern States. The Southern economy was driven by the growth of cotton, which needed a huge amount of work force, in this case slaves. Some of the Northern states had abolished slavery, others agreed on the gradual emancipation after the American Revolutionary War, and their economy was industrial based. There was a dispute between free-states and slave states over the new territory, California, though the issue was temporally fixed with the Compromise of 1850.
I believe that the Civil War began with the debate over the future of slavery. That very issue led to secession, and secession caused a war where the Northern states fought for the ground of the Union, and the South for their independence as a new confederation of states under its own constitution. It seems to me that any disagreement leads to some form of resentment. We tend to not like what we don’t understand, and it was hard for the North to understand why the Southern states were itching for freedom from them. It seems from a broader point of view that the North has gone through so much just for the Southern states of America to exist.
Years of frustration is what caused the eventual succession. Since the American Revolution, the topic of slavery was present in the minds of important men in both northern and southern states. The institution of slavery was allowed to continue in the United States, but it was when the Union started to expand that much of the frustration began. The government had passed regulations banning the spread of slavery into these new territories, and many southern states were outraged to the point where South Carolina threatened to succeed from the Union in 1821. Southern states believed that their way of life was being infringed, meaning that slavery was an important institution for their mainly agricultural based economy.
2. Which type of change—political, social, or economic—faced the most challenges? Why were Southerners against this type of change? Political, many southerners wanted slavery, so electing a Republican who was against slavery and wanted to abolish it would set them over the edge and make them furious. 3.
In the early years of the republic, there were various controversial issues that divided the American people. The ratification of the Constitution split people up into Federalist and Anti-Federalist groups, which were those who wanted the Constitution to be ratified, and those that didn’t. Before the Louisiana Purchase, people were also split on whether or not the purchase was going to be worth it in the long run. When the issue of expansion of slavery into the territories was brought up, Southern-extremest and Northern-soilers could never seem to come to an agreement. Before the Constitution, there were the Articles of Confederation.
The North angered the South by violating the Fugitive Slave Act by helping slaves escape. This helped fuel the Civil War. The United States dealt with slavery by allowing free and slave states, separating the nation. The United States Constitution Article 1, Section 9 states, “The Migration or Importation of such Persons [slaves] now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding Ten dollars for each Person….”. The United States permitted slavery into their country as long slave owners paid on tax on their property (slaves).
He called for the end of slavery in his Emancipation Proclamination. Many states did not agree, which encountered from a massive number of threats. He crafted the thirteenth amendment which ended slavery. Slavery was having blacks basically owed as the whites. African Americans were being sold like properties and treated worse than animals.
What Lead to the Civil War. From the beginning of the United States, war was inevitable between the North and the South, over the issues of slavery. Ever since Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gins in 1790, the South has been on a completely different economic path from the North. In the 1850’s political developments, the Fugitive slave act, the Dread Scott decision, and the John Brown raid, eventually all drove the regions further and further apart. Even though the North and South tried to reconcile their differences on the issue of slavery by implementing compromises in the 1820’s and 1850’s, both attempts failed, leading up to the Civil War.