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Civil War Dbq

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December 20, 1860 marked a pivotal moment in the history of the United States, it was a day in which South Carolina seceded from the Union, a day that came to a head after the election of Abraham Lincoln. It marked the beginning of the American Civil War. A war that was the bloodiest and most divisive conflict for the American people, one that took the lives of more than 650,000 people and injured thousands more in the span of 4 years. The justification behind the Civil War was the doctrine of states' rights, which asserted that states have the authority to nullify federal laws if they deemed them unconstitutional. Quite frankly though, the preservation of the institution of slavery was the main reason behind the secession of South Carolina …show more content…

Lincoln held firm to this idea for a couple of years because of his fear about the border states seceding if he made his policy in the war exclusively about abolishing slavery (Lecture, 02/07/2024). Border states remained slave states but also stayed as a part of the Union, and they were an essential part to the Union’s forces in the Civil War, and Lincoln’s connection to Kentucky made this mission all the more significant. It is important to add, Lincoln was not entirely concerned about enslaved people, only reuniting his country. In a personal letter to Horace Greeley in August 1862 he explains that his only goal was to “save the Union”, whether that came at the cost of “[saving] or [destroying] slavery” he did not care about (Lincoln, 75). To sum up, during the first two years of the Civil War Abraham Lincoln was attempting to reunite the Union without making it a conflict about slavery. This approach would change though after 2 years of bloodshed and the key Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in September

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Frederick Douglass proclaimed that the American Civil War was not for “mere strife and territory,” but more so a “contest of civilization over barbarism.” Civilization was necessary with the rumor of insurrection from slaves. Slaves became more independent and intransigence with the initiative of freedom. Their initiative soon was granted by the executive order of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, it freed three million slaves in the Confederacy and counted them as a person instead of property. It was issued as a war measure of ten states in the South, to suppress rebellion during the American Civil War but it did not apply to the Union.

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The Civil War, from 1861-1864, was a collection of brutal battles between the North and South as a result of their sectional differences. Although the North won the military victory against the South, the South was able to keep many of its policies in place after the Civil War. During the Reconstruction Period, 1865-1877, it was evident that the South won the Civil War in many ways because of their political and social policies that they implemented or kept in place. While the 13th through 15th amendments changed social issues for a period of time in the South by allowing more opportunities and rights for former slaves, the South continued their social dominance over black people. Also, politically, near the beginning of Reconstruction and

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Mid 19th century is when two neighboring regions of a sound country collide with one another in a violent outbreak. The North and the South had diverging point of views on slavery. Also, the North was modernizing and growing with industrialization while the South used agricultural methods to profit. There are three main causes that ignited the civil war are slavery, expansion of the Americas, and Secession. These 3 elements made the fire of war grow exponentially where immediate action must be taken to put out the raging fire.

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The Civil War assessed several questions from the Philadelphia Convention. One of which was the idea of slavery. There was a clear contradiction between the principles stated within the Declaration of Independence and the institution of slavery. The Civil War also impacted the identity of the United States. Rather than aligning with their respective state, people began to identify as a part of a single united entity, or the Union.

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In 1861 a civil war has broken out because of the big disagreement about slaves. The nationalists of the Union proclaimed loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. They are fighting against the rebellions of the Confederate States of America, who fight for states’ rights to expand slavery. In 1860 Lincoln was elected and he supported the banning of slavery. The southern states see this as a violation of their rights.

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Although the Union’s aim in entering the Civil War was to hold the nation together, the Southern States originally seceded largely because of rising tensions about slavery caused by several key events. Prior to the mid-1800s the government had been skirting around slavery issues and attempting to pacify both sides, but eventually irrepressible problems began to arise and tempers flared, leading to the Civil War in 1861. In the years following the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion brought up a need to develop a policy concerning the regulation of slave and free territories. At the time, slave states and free states had equal representation, and the addition of a new state could disrupt the balance.

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In the early 19th Century, the United States were divided over the issue of slavery. The majority of northern states wanted to stop its expansion or even abolish it, while the southern states wanted the opposite, as slavery was the most important factor in the southern economy. Eventually, the country broke into civil war over the issue. The American Civil War was a direct result of the building tension between the North and South due to lack of compromise and the difficulty of interpretation of the United States Constitution.

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The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860 as the first Republican president, and pledged keep slavery from expanding in the territories (Text, 402). After Lincoln was elected, South Carolina succeeded from the Union and soon other slave states in the deep South joined. The seceded states together formed a new nation called the Confederate States of America (Text, 404).

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During the 1800’s, issues such as slavery became a huge topic in America. Today, most people believe the civil war was about slavery, but it was only part of it. The war was actually about preserving the Union. This makes me wonder, “What led to the secession of the South?” While it is hard to say abolitionists were directly responsible for the national discord in America, they were a key part in causing the increase of sectional divide.

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Inarguably, there are many factors that contributed to the division of America and ultimately the initiation of the American civil war. The issue superseding all other contributing factors is undoubtedly slavery. This still remains a controversial subject that incites much debate. A number of people are reluctant to believe that Southerners were willing to fight and die in America’s most devastating war in order to uphold such an appallingly unjust and morally abhorrent institution. The South, through its secession, demonstrated that it was prepared to sacrifice the Union in order to protect their ‘peculiar institution’.

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The United States Civil War was a major event that had occurred in the country because it changed the United States in many ways such as the ban of slavery, equal voting rights, citizenship for those that are born in the United States, technology advancement, better medical care, and equal rights for all. The civil war was guaranteed to happen because of the fact that the North and the South were two different partitions. They were the complete opposite from each other because the North was more of the industrialized ones, while the South were the ones that were more into the agricultural part. The South and the North had so many conflicts within each other that there was no way that the Civil War would have been preventable. The South had

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The American Civil War was a history changing event that began on the 12 April 1861 and ended on the 9 April 1865. It caused the Union (the Northern states) and the Confederacy (the Southern states) to fight and resulted in the most fatally devastating conflict in the history of North America. Approximately 620,000 people lost their lives, and everyone in the world was impacted. This began at Fort Sumter in Charlestown Bay, where the Confederate Army open fired on the Federal men, forcing their garrison to lower the American flag and surrender. This fight continued to get more vicious over the preceding years, with notable battles like Gettysburg and Antietam.

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698 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil War was known as one of the bloodiest wars fought on American soil. On April 12, 1861, the first shot of the Civil War was fired from Fort Sumter. It was estimated to have 620,000 casualties, which is the most ever in an American war. The Civil War had three main causes, slavery, states’ rights, and secession. It altered the direction of the country by eliminating slavery, weakening states’ rights, and strengthening the power of the Federal Government.

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The American Civil War was a major turning point in America’s history. Before this defining moment, many Americans were cruel to many groups of people, including those of color, and women. This maltreatment of people was the main motivation behind the Civil War. Through the efforts of men (and women) fighting for the freedom of all in the country, the American Civil War redefined what it means to be an American. Two great examples of these fighters are Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

The Civil War began in 1787 When I think of the Civil War, I think about slavery. Actually I believe thats what caused the Civil War, it was the start of Slavery in 1619 when the English settlers in Virginia purchased 20 blacks from others. Many say that the Civil War was initiated because of slavery. " Yet many could point to the Founding Fathers to the constitution, to the Bible itself, for justification of the idea that whites deserved the right to ensalve Blacks", back then or maybe I'm not up to date with the Bible, but the Bible or God was a guide to the white people to enslave the black.

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