Civil War Dbq Essay

In the era before the civil war, specifically in the era post-purchase of the Louisiana territories, sectionalism between the Northern and Southern territories spread like wildfire. The Northern states, mainly focusing on commercial and industrial economy, supported the idea of the freedom of slaves. On the other hand, the South, a mainly agricultural and rural society, supported the idea of slaves and slave labor to work in the plantations of white men. These differences would later spark many conflicts (including the Civil War), in which the North was fighting for the freedom of slaves and the South was fighting for the keeping of slaves, especially in new additional territories. Thus, the most prominent political issues and debates that

During the Jefferson administration, the United States had bought a territory from the French called the Louisiana Territory. But there was still a defining issue prominent over this new land, slavery. Thus came the Missouri Compromise, in which the US government prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude above the 36 30 parallel (Doc 2). However, this compromise only temporarily resolved the debate over slavery. When the territories of present day Kansas and Nebraska applied for statehood the debate over slavery soon arose once more as the Kansas-Nebraska Act these states broke the Missouri Compromise, allowing Kansas and Nebraska to be a popular sovereignty,increasing Northern and Southern tensions. This even grabbed the attention of Abraham Lincoln in which he expressed that he opposed slavery in Kansas and Nebraska and in a letter to Joshua Speed in 1855 (Doc 6). Debates over slavery extended all around the country at this time including Philadelphia in 1833. During this time the American Anti-Slavery drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, expressing their abolitionist and anti slavery beliefs (Doc 5). This draft not only expressed anti-slavery movements, but it was also a symbol of the increasing divisions between the North and South, similar to the debates from the added Nebraska and Kansas territories on

But the main conflict however, was the violence and fighting between the residents living in Kansas. Given the blood that was shed, the conflict was given the name, Bleeding Kansas. Northerners living there even used propaganda and political cartoons to gain support, especially in the cartoon Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler (Doc 7). The cartoon, published in 1856, depicts a Kansas man in shackles and chains with a man, representing slavery, being forced down the throat of a free soiler, reflecting the South's violent attempts to extend slavery into new territories and the North's resistance to this expansion. This graphic served as a mark of sectional divisions caused by the violence of southerners in Bleeding Kansas, leading to the civil war. This was not the only violent conflict between the Northern abolitionists and Southern farmers, as John Brown, a strong abolitionist, led a raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia to try and spark a slave rebellion. In a political cartoon, Brown is shown as a hero and leader (Doc 4). But by many many southerners he was seen as insane, and as an aggressor for causing the deaths of multiple lives, adding on to the already high tensions in the