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What Caused The Antebellum Age Of 1820 To 1860 Dbq

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In the years of 1820s through the 1860s, a growing sectional conflict centered around slavery signaled the coming of a war between the north and the south, which almost tore down the union. According to some revisionist historians, Civil War, one of the greatest tragedies in the American history, was absolutely avoidable and resulted merely from “fanaticism and misunderstanding,” along with the failure of the political leaders to compromise; however, this is not the case. Looking back into history, the war was arguably made inevitable by the the cause of slavery. A series of factors in the antebellum age led to the outbreak of Civil War; these factors included social differences, economic issues, as well as political tensions generated by …show more content…

Their effort was so evident in the Gag Rule of 1836, which ruled that any discussion about the abolition of slavery, or even slavery itself, be “without being either printed or referred, be laid on the table and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon”[Doc. C]. The rule had avoided the unsolved problem; this attitude of the political leaders let the potential conflict intensify throughout the years. Although the crisis seemed to quiet down for a while, in 1854, the issue of slavery was brought again to the center stage by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Proposed by Stephen Douglas, the act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and embraced the idea of popular-sovereignty. By this action, the possibility of slavery extending into states north of the Missouri Compromise Line, especially Kansas, was once again opened. Not long after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in 1856, the violence in the senate again showed the tension when South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks beat Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner to death with his cane [Doc. E]. The violence in the governing class quickly stimulated both sides, further incited the extremists on both sides. The antebellum crisis reached a climax after the presidential election of 1860, which elected as president a man who was not even on the southern ballot—Abraham Lincoln [Doc. H]. The new president of the United States did not gain a single vote from the south, which of course made southerners furious; they were so depressed by the “president of the north” that the secession of the southern states was declared in the same year, led by South Carolina. By the time the secession became a fact, the political tensions between the north and the south were exerting even more pressure on the governing class of both sides, and apparently, the fragile nation is on the edge of an outbreak of

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