Civil War Dbq Essay

Have you ever wondered how the north and south perceived the Civil War? What about how these views caused a war? Well, in this essay, the viewpoints of northerners and southerners about the Civil War will be compared and contrasted. It will discuss how the Civil war was a war perceived differently by the North and South. Also, how it was a result of their differing viewpoints.

To kick it off, the North had a specific viewpoint on the Civil War. Northerners believed that the war would be good and would result in the abolition of slavery. In Document 6, the text states, “After this war is over, this whole country will undergo a change for the better... abolishing slavery will dignify labor; that fact of itself will revolutionize everything.”

Unlike the North, they saw the war as vile and harmful. The author wrote in Document 2, “We have never aggressed upon the North... They have robbed us of our property, they have murdered our citizens while endeavoring to reclaim that property by lawful means...” By using words such as murdered and robbed, the author implies that the effects of the Civil War are disastrous. Another viewpoint that was common in the South is that the war was all Lincoln's fault. The text in Document 7 says, “This so enraged President Lincoln that he declared war, and has exhausted nearly all the strength of the nation, in vain attempt to whip the South back into the Union. Thousands of lives have been lost, and the earth has been drenched with blood; but still Abraham is unable to conquer the “Rebels” as he calls the south.” This shows that the war could have been avoided if Lincoln could just accept the fact the South wanted to secede and let them

The Union was filled with people who disliked slavery and desperately wanted it to end. This is supported by Phineas Hager’s letter in Document 6 that says, “... the more I learn of the cursed institution of Slavery, the more I feel willing to endure, for its final destruction . . .” By saying that he is “willing to endure” a lot for as long as slavery ends, he is trying to say that war would be worth it if it ended with the outlaw of slavery. On the other hand, the Confederacy was populated with those who used slaves and wanted to keep slavery. In the Geographical Reader of the Dixie Children textbook for schoolchildren in Document 7, the textbook states, “Then the Northern people began to preach, to lecture, and to write about the sin of slavery . . . And when the territories were settled they were not willing for any of them to become slaveholding” and “The Southern men tried to show them how unfair this would be, but still they kept on.” These two quotes make it clear that the North wanted to get rid of slave states and free the slaves within them. However, the South believed that taking them away wasn’t fair and they wanted to keep them. Because of the North’s unwillingness to give up, they would have led raids to free slaves and eventually start a