Civil War Dbq Essay

The Civil War was a terrible tragedy that affected millions of people, but helped toward the abolition of slavery. Compromises over slavery failed, huge disagreements over slavery developed, and the people were in outrage in both the North and South. Slavery was the main reason for sectionalism and the outrage over it. The nation was divided on the subject. Ultimately, sectionalism slavery were the main reasons for the Civil War. Sectionalism was a major cause of the Civil War. At this time, it was the major divide in ideals and points of view within the political parties and geographical divisions. The north and south both generally held extremely different views on slavery, as did the political parties. For example, in a southern newspaper,

Effectively, both sides were using demagoguery to try to promote their side and demean the other. This led to huge rivalries and sectional divisions. Thomas Jefferson says in a letter that the Union is in bad shape. He goes onto say that the divide between north and south exists because people are steadfast in their point of view and every little event that regards slavery will mark this divide deeper and deeper.(Doc 1) These differences in parties and geography are very similar to the divide we see today. Our country is getting more and more divided, which is leading to a greater chance of civil war, like the one sectionalism caused in the 1860s. When South Carolina seceded, they did so because of sectional divisions. According to them, the country was divided into two parts. They didn’t like it when Lincoln was elected as president, because he was anti-slavery. They cannot deal with someone in office who has a differing opinion from them. (Doc 9) The South Carolinians that seceded say that they did so because of the division over slavery and the sectional divide. They admit themselves that there is a geographical and political divide in the USA, and think

This is because the arguments over slavery fed into sectionalism and divides over the issue. The novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin demonstrates this point effectively. For example, in this novel, Uncle Tom’s master is extremely cruel to him and abuses him simply for existing. At the end of the book, the master (named Legree) ends up beating him to death. (Doc 4). This novel was important to the north because it created a lot of support for abolitionism in the north, but was ultimately not good because it led to greater sectionalism. People in the south read this book, and denounced it, saying it was full of lies, and claiming that the north was lying about slavery, trying to argue that they were not so cruel to people. The north would then argue back, and it would be an endless spiral which led to great divisions. The Dred Scott Case was a major case in the issue of slavery. He was a slave who decided to sue his master after he went into a free territory with him. He ended up losing the case, and the court ended up deciding that the Missouri compromise, a very important piece of law, was unconstitutional because the government cannot regulate property in a territory, only in a state. (Doc 6) This was a landmark case in the debate over slavery. It led to the nullification of the Missouri Compromise, which let Missouri in as a slave territory and Maine as a free territory. Thus, they could not regulate the