DBQ Essay: What Caused The Civil War

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What Caused the Civil War? The Civil War changed the United States of America forever. What caused the industrial North and the agricultural South to begin war between the States? Three main reasons were moral, economic and failure to compromise. These reasons were the main causes of the bloodshed in America. The divided country had two different moral views. The main moral difference was towards slavery. Fredrick Douglass was an escaped slave from Maryland. He moved to New York and became the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper called The North Star. He was requested to speak about what the fourth of July meant to the Negro race, and delivered a speech on July 5, 1852. In his speech he speaks for all of the slaves in the United States. Document 4 says,…show more content…
If a nation cannot become one and compromise then it will not survive. Document 9 is giving information of the Dred Scott decision. The Supreme Court and Chief Justice Roger Taney said that slaves were not considered men in the sense that the Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal. The decision stated that slaves were property and that the government was prohibited from interfering with any person’s property. The slave states and the free states would not compromise on if a person who owned slaves moved to a free state they would become free. The Dred Scott decision stated that a slave is property, even if a family with a slave moved to a free state they would be able to keep the slave since it is property. This decision divided the nation if greater. Document 10 is an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s speech when he was accepting the Republican nomination for US Senator from Illinois. He states,” A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Lincoln is stating that with the nation divided it will not last as one nation for

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