The events of Fort Sumter in April 1861 were a major turning point in American history. Whilst the conflict resulted in no official deaths, it marked the beginning of the American Civil War—a war that progressed over four years and resulted in the deaths of more than 620,000 Americans and the emancipation of 3.9 million slaves. Slavery played a key role in the events leading up to the civil war. It was the topic of great political debate between Northern and Southern leaders and was at the stem of many subsequent factors attributed to sparking the civil war. For instance, whilst the cultural divide of northern industrialists and agrarian southerners gives a plausible reason for the south's later secession, this agrarianism was ultimately founded upon the notion of forced labor. In a more overt display, the contention of slavery would have fuelled the economic divide between the North and South; the industrial North was less reliant on labor as it was on capital, whereas the South relied heavily on slave labor to harvest its main exploit: cotton.
The notable economic and cultural divide between the North and South was further exaggerated via the nullification crisis; as the union was heavily centralized in the North, the subsequent economic policies (mainly tariffs) were increasingly northern-oriented, leaving the South behind. Many cotton producers in the South felt that the industrial and manufacturing elites of the North were failing to consider their livelihoods. These tariffs and cultural differences resulted in greater feelings of isolation. Unsurprisingly, the regional economic disparities and isolationism resulted in the South wishing for greater autonomy. Thus, the issue of states’ rights also became a point of discussion amongst civil war historians. Historian Alan Farmer argues that the debate of states’ rights hardly existed and that it was only the right to slavery (which the North was keen to prevent spreading into the new western territories) which led to escalations towards the war.
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One might argue that these causes led to a pivotal moment of secession, with the election of Lincoln (a northern abolitionist) tipping America into a civil war. The South could have viewed Lincoln’s election as the personification of their “dying voice” within the Union – a union that elected a northern president possessing not a single Southern electoral vote. The election of a passionate abolitionist as president might have turned the South’s existing feelings of isolation (made worse by Lincoln’s election) into feelings of impotence – especially given his radical views on a practice so deeply rooted in their economy and way of life. To evaluate the causes of the American Civil War, one must therefore decide whether the issue of states’ rights evolved from a debate about slavery into a debate about the way in which states were governed – and whether this factor was substantial enough to outweigh slavery as a leading cause. This essay will explore the extent to which slavery was at the basis of all divides as well as the validity of the argument for states' rights, concluding that whilst states' rates evolved into a significant factor, it was ultimately the premisses of slavery that caused the American Civil War.
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Analytical Essay on Causes of the Civil War.
(2023, October 27). Edubirdie. Retrieved December 22, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/analytical-essay-on-causes-of-the-civil-war/
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2023 Oct 27 [cited 2024 Dec 22].
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