Civil War Essay Sample
The Civil War was a period of time in the United States where there were two sides: Union and Confederate. The war began on April 12, 1861, and ended on April 9, 1865. It had many impacts on our country which we still feel today. This essay will cover some of those impacts as well as what led up to the Civil War.
Essay Sample On Civil War In USA
Thesis Statement For Civil War Essay
American Civil War is considered to be one of the most important events in United States history. The war was between North and South over different attitudes towards slavery, economical differences, and power struggle. It divided the country into two parts with different views about the nation’s future.
Civil War Essay Introduction
The American Civil War (1861-1865) remains one of “the most important events in United States history” (Keegan & Holmes). The war was between North and South over different attitudes towards slavery, economical differences, and power struggle. It divided the country into two parts with different views about the nation’s future.
I will analyze American Civil War, its causes, and results as well as compare the conditions at that time with modern-day life in America. I will also look at who some of the heroes were during this conflict and what made them so famous.
Main Body – Civil War Essay
The main cause of the conflict was a disagreement on whether or not to allow slavery within US states. In 1787 Americans agreed they would be free from British rule but they had no united government system yet. The choice was made to create a federal system where each state would have its own government and people could decide what rights they wanted to have. This meant that some Northern states were against slavery, while Southern states allowed it. In the 1820s emerging cotton, market led to increased demand for slave labor in the South as well as stricter laws towards escaped slaves.
The North opposed this because “they believed that all men were created free and equal”, which goes completely against the idea of slavery. Therefore Northerners refused to accept new laws that limited their freedom to express opinions about issues such as slavery or any other kind of views that the majority from the South disagreed with. Finally, tension over slavery escalated into hostility.
Slavery was not the only reason that led to the Civil War, however. In 1846 government introduced a new tariff which increased duties on several imported items. Since the South had a large number of exporting states, they were against this tax because it put them at a disadvantage with other competing countries where there were no tariffs. The North agreed with this because it made domestic products cheaper and allowed American businesses to grow faster.
The economy played a major role in fueling disagreements between both parts of the country, as mentioned above. While the North was industrializing rapidly, “the South remained mainly agricultural”. This meant that Northerners faced less competition from other countries while Southerners had to compete with countries that were not subjected to the tariff. Also, there were great differences between both parts of the country in terms of population.
There were much more people living North due to the fact that Northern states attracted immigrants who then contributed to the economy while Southern states suffered from a lack of labor. Some Southerners even blamed the slavery issue on the need for cheap labor and therefore they believed slaves should be freed. The economic problems meant that Northerners believed their region’s growth would only benefit if tariffs decreased while the South saw it as something preventing its natural prosperity.
In 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act stated that the residents of those territories could decide whether they wanted slavery or not. Many Northerners saw that as a violation of the Missouri Compromise (1820) that was meant to keep slavery out of new territories. Then, on May 21st, 1856 John Brown and his supporters killed five pro-slavery settlers in Kansas. As a result, North and South split even more because previously there were not any major disagreements on the issue of slavery within those two regions.
Civil War Essay Conclusion
The reasons stated above led to increased hostility between the North and South. While Northerners saw slavery as barbaric, Southerners believed it was their right to have slaves if they so desired. When conflicts escalated into violence, President Buchanan mistakenly thought he would be able to prevent civil war by supporting Southerners’ claims for freedom to own slaves in new territories while at the same time guaranteeing Northerners’ rights to abolish slavery where it already existed.
People’s views on slavery were influenced by religion at that time. Many Protestants believed that all men are equal in God’s eyes which meant that everyone should be free no matter what race they were from. On the other hand, there were also Christians who preached slave-holding as an expression of religious faith.
Both North and South felt that their way of life was under attack by the opposing region, which meant that the tension between them increased even more. As a result, North and South split into two parts which eventually led to bloodshed on April 12th, 1861 when Confederates attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC.