In The Eyes Of The Beholder: Causes For The Civil War

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In the Eyes of the Beholder: Causes for the Civil War Many historians have come across the infamous event of the Civil War from our American history. Although there might be many people who try and collect as many resources that can help uncover the truth of our nation’s past, there will always be many variations as to what the truth is. Therefore, it is safe to say that what is taught in our classrooms today is simply the most commonly accepted theory amongst our population. Historian C’s theory as to why the Civil War happened is based upon the several factors of: fraudulent leadership, bad judgment, emotion, misunderstanding, misrepresentation of each side, and bias. The effect of these factors ultimately led to the Civil War because both the Northern and Southern sections were blinded by their emotions. Each party didn’t realize that many of the other reasons posed by different historians (such as different economic systems, slavery, etc) could have been solved in a peaceful manner. There is a very reasonable connection between the cause and effect of this…show more content…
The first source mentioned comes from a report of a surgeon general stating the amount of deaths that happened in the war. The surgeon could have reason to lie since the report was made public, but the total amount of deaths will remain a mystery since back then not everything was recorded properly and the amount of deaths could have been slightly off. The second source is from Stephen A. Douglas’s speech that would provide a reason to lie or exaggerate because of the possibility of bias. The third source listed was derived from an annual report of the American Historical Association making it a secondary source. The last source is a primary source because it comes from a journal entry of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which doesn’t give any reason to lie or exaggerate since it is his own personal view about everything going
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