...Through the course of American history a ubiquitous theme of seceding oppression and holding true to one’s rights and beliefs is accentuated, however this sweet tea of American values has been brewed by an otherwise tart source, the tea leaves of tension. In the debate over slavery which consumed nineteenth century America, proponents and opponents of free labor clashed ceaselessly. The ensuing Civil War was caused by a self-preservation instinct that each side used to substantiate their discord. Foremost, beginning with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, the South began to resort to outcrying against the government, as they saw their future potentially dwindle away. Thereafter, through the repercussions of the growing sectionalism and...
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...St. Louis. This case that is usually known as the Dred Scott Decision was a ruling by the Supreme Court of America that African people imported into the country and detained as slaves were not protected by the U.S Constitution and could never be American citizens. Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom from his master in a Missouri court in the year 1846. As part of his arguments, Dred Scott claimed that he resided in Illinois which was a free state and part of the Louisiana Territory. Therefore, he claimed that he was a free man because of his residence in a free territory in which slavery was prohibited by the 1820 Missouri Compromise (“Dred Scott v. Sanford” par, 1). However, Dred Scott’s suit for freedom in the local federal court in Missouri was unsuccessful. Eleven years later after his initial suit in the Missouri court, Scott brought a new suit in the United States’ Supreme Court. This was after the federal court ordered the jury to depend on Missouri law for the conclusion of the case regarding Scott’s freedom. Additionally, Scott decided to appeal to the United States’ Supreme Court following the decision of the Missouri Supreme Court to consider him as a slave. In his defense, Scott’s master maintained that the American Constitution did not allow people of African descent and descendant of slaves to be considered as the country’s citizens. Similar to the initial suit, the Supreme Court of America ruled in favor of Scott’s master because of the fact...
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...The Civil War was a time of chaos and different opinions. It all started with Abraham Lincoln being elected to be our 16th president. Slowly tension from the South and North started to build up about slavery, which then resulted in war. This war lasted for about four years with many significant battles. There were many important events that were leading up to the Civil War, but there were a few that were the key causes. The six events that are vital to the war’s build up are the Missouri Compromise, Nat Turner’s Rebellion, Compromise of 1850, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Bleeding Kansas, and John Brown’s Raid. The Missouri Compromise was in 1820, after the Louisiana Purchase. As time went on after the Louisiana Purchase, the Congress decided that it...
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...Ezequiel Llompart Period.3 9-10-13 CAUSES TO THE CIVIL WAR The civil war was fought in the United States from 1861-1865 and was also known as the war between the states, the war started right after the southern slave states declared their secession and formed The Confederate states of America. Abraham Lincoln was the president for the union states which were the northern and Jefferson Davis was president for the confederacy states which were the southern states. Slavery was the main cause of the civil war, all the other causes are a derivative of slavery. The southern politicians protected slavery by calling for states right and state sovereignty. The Missouri compromise versus popular sovereignty was another big cause of the civil war which I will be talking about. “Bleeding Kansas” was something that got the northerners in favor of the war. And lastly after the election of Abraham Lincoln, that ended up leading to the breakout of the civil war. Coming to the end of The Mexican War, new lands to the west of Texas were yielded to the United States and debate over the westward expansion of slavery was being talked about. Southern politicians and slave owners demanded that slavery be allowed in the West. Northerners however, believed that slavery should be banned from the new territories. Southerners worried that if politicians in the North prevented slavery from expanding westward, then it was only a matter of time before they began attacking it in the South as...
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...Over the years people have thought of many different causes for the civil war that took over 600,000 American lives in 1861-1865. Many people believe that the only true cause of the civil war was because of slavery but the war itself was fought over something much bigger than just slavery it was fought over the great political difference between the North and South. The actions of the Democratic politicians from the South and Republican politicians from the North kept the conflict between the states at the center of the political debate for years and made the war inevitable. Key political causes of the civil war include the acts congress passed, the split that happened throughout the years between congress, and most importantly the election in 1860 that elected Abraham Lincoln as president. Congress, throughout the years since America won independence passed laws they believed would help their nation. But as slavery became more of a problem in the nation, acts passed by congress became more important and affected the outcome of the American nation and its citizens much greater. Congress passed many acts throughout the years leading to the Civil War, but some very important ones that both held off the civil war and pushed the civil war are the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Connecticut Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas – Nebraska Act of 1854. The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 after Missouri requested in 1819 to be part of the Union as a slave state. Missouri’s request...
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...lecture and power-point notes compare and contrast the compromises of 1820 and 1850. Slavery came about in America in 1619 (RN). It lasted through the American Revolution, even after Thomas Jefferson scripted his famous lines in the Declaration of Independence, "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Clearly, slaves were not part of this included in Jefferson's words. When it came time to write the Constitution, the word "slavery" was never used. Instead, the framers chose to use the term "other people." These other people were counted as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in Congress according to the Three-Fifths Compromise (RN). This compromise kept slavery in the United States unharmed. The framers also decided not to do anything about the issue of slavery for twenty years. Prior to the American Civil War, many different compromises were made in an attempt to hinder the growing disagreements. However, this only extended the unavoidable events that would occur. The differences between North and South were far to great and compromise did not stand a chance at preventing the imminent conflict. This was most clearly shown in the ways in which the two main compromises: the Compromise of 1820, also known as the Missouri Compromise, and the Compromise of 1850 failed. In 1820 Missouri wanted to join the Union as a slave state. Prior to...
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...Events leading up to the Civil War University of Phoenix There were many factors that led to the Civil War in 1861. Most people would say that slavery is the leading cause and the only reason for the Civil War. It was one of the reasons, but not the only reason. There were five leading causes that led to the Civil War and they were: economic and social differences, state versus federal rights, slavery, the Abolition Movement and the election of Lincoln as President. Economic and Social Differences The invention of Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin in 1793 led to many differences between the North and the South. Cotton became a very profitable crop for both and the time to process it had been greatly reduced by the machine. In the South, more plantations began to produce cotton, which increased the need for slaves. The North on the other hand was based more on industry than agriculture and was purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. The ever evolving northern society encompassed people of different races and cultures working together. The southern states continued to hold onto their social pecking order. (americanhistory.about.com, 2011) States versus Federal rights Southern states were in favor of state’s rights over federal rights; northern states were in favor of a federal government. States rights would enable the states themselves to decide if a federal law was constitutional or not and whether or not that they were willing to accept it. When they were...
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...‘The American Civil War was an irrepressible conflict.’ Do you agree? The American Civil war is one of the most studied topics in American history. Yet still, a definitive answer cannot be found as to why the war broke out. Many of the interpretations can be grouped into two major schools of thought: the irrepressible conflict or the Blundering Generation. It was certainly true that the North and South were becoming increasingly different during this period. Slavery being the most fundamental of these, however there was also variances in the economies and culture. This would support the idea that the war was inevitable as the differences were too great. However, it can be argued that radically different societies can co-exist without going to war. Instead, a series of mistakes and misjudgements were made by blundering politicians. There are numerous examples of this; the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott and the Fugitive Slave Act to name just a few. In my view, the American Civil War was an irrepressible conflict since compromise on the slavery issue was impossible. Blundering politicians acted as catalysts to ignite the flames of war, however they did not create the differences which acted as the foundation for the irrepressible conflict. The issue of slavery is often cited as the most significant cause of the war. By 1860 the issue of slavery had become too great and compromise was impossible. As Frederick Douglass stated, ‘the more the issue is settled, the more it needs settling...
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...The American Civil War was Unavoidable The bloodiest time in history for America was during The American Civil War; a time when Americans fought against themselves for their own rights in which they believed they were entitled to. To many it would be considered shocking and absurd to say the Civil War was something that could have been avoided – and they’re right. The Civil War was an unavoidable and ultimately inevitable conflict that was essential to the evolution of our nation. The differences between the North and the South, economically, geographically, and politically, were major players on why the two divided halves of the America could not prosper together at that time; that and the fact that the previous attempts to compromise on slavery had reached an unavoidable end also made the Civil War an inevitable and undeniable conclusion to the problems brewing between the two sides. There was simply no further room for compromise. There were many differences between the North and the South. The most obvious of which is that the North was, for the most part, industrial; while the South on the other hand was economically dependent of the production of staple crops (primarily cotton). The production of cotton in the South with the advent of the cotton gin soared, causing an increase of labor required; this lead to an increased dependency on slave labor in the south. Slavery was something the North often looked down upon and also held little or no value to them. How could...
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...the inevitable topic of slavery until it brought the United States into a civil war. The Missouri Compromise allowed the North and the South to be on an even playing field because there was a balanced number of free and slave states. Then, about 30 years later, the Kansas-Nebraska act violated the agreement of the Missouri Compromise. The Wilmot Proviso affected the balance of free and slave states by eliminating slavery in the land that was acquired from the Mexican-American war. The Dred Scott v. Sandford case proved that the Southern slave states were dominant in the Supreme Court. Southerners argued that slavery needed to be part of daily life to support their economy, so when Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, it pushed the Southerners to secede....
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...African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be American citizens and could not sue in federal courts. The paper covers the different factors which eventually led to the civil war. The Author’s thesis question was basically why the civil war happened. I think the author was saying that “Scott V. Sandford was not an easily forgotten case…that only the complete eradication of slavery through war could cure.” The Northern and Southern sections of the United States developed differently. The south remained agricultural and the North became more and more industrialized. Both had different social cultures and political beliefs. All of this led to disagreements on issues such as taxes, state rights and federal rights. The main issue that led to the separation of the union was slavery. The conflict led to disunion and disunion brought a war in which Northern and Western territories fought to preserve the union. Dred Scott, a slave who needed citizenship through American legal system, and whose case eventually ended up...
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...FINAL PROJECT: HISTORICAL TIMELINE AND ESSAY Final Project: Historical Timeline and Essay Jennifer Mullins Axia College of the University of Phoenix Historical Timeline and Essay: The Civil War The first shots were fired on April 12, 1861 from Fort Sumter, South Carolina beginning a four-year battle that would end on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered in Appomattox, Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending what became known as the American Civil War (Davidson, Gienapp, Heyrman, Lytle, and Stoff, 2006). In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, America went into two different economical directions: the North became industrial the South agricultural. Although it is believed the underlying cause behind the Civil War was due to the abolition of slavery (slaves were considered a major asset in the southern states), the following timeline shows there were many other factors involved as well. From the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the firing of the first shots at Fort Sumter, America’s journey for equality and unity was a hard one, leaving in its wake destruction, discord, and civil unrest. ____________________________________________________________ ____________ 1776: Declaration of Independence • Was written by Thomas Jefferson • Was signed on July 4th, severing all ties to Britain 1787: Northwest Ordinance • Was passed on July 13th establishing the intent to expand into the West adding...
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...States from the early 17th century until 1865, when Congress enacted the Thirteenth Amendment shortly after the Union victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War. . . slavery was firmly entrenched as the primary labor system of the South. As tobacco proved less and less profitable, however, slavery seemed to be on the decline. The delegates at the Continental Congress even briefly discussed abolishing slavery, although strenuous objections form Southern delegates, whose constituents had enormous sums tied up in slave property, brought such talk to a close quickly. The South relied on slavery to make profit, and even though the industry that gain the most profit was diminishing, they did not seek to end slavery. Economics played a major role in slavery and the reason that the United States could not exist as half slave and half free. As seen from the beginning the colonies were not equally divided, however the issue concerning the slave states and free states peaked as the United States incorporated more colonies. The most notable issue arose when Missouri wanted to become a slave state, “Missouri's application for statehood in 1819 caused considerable controversy because, if it had been admitted as a slave state, Missouri would have tipped the balance in the Senate toward slave states. Opponents of slavery wanted Missouri to eliminate the institution prior to being admitted as a state; proponents thought that was...
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...and could never be citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise (1820), which had declared free all territories west of Missouri and north of latitude 36°30′, was unconstitutional. The decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country closer to civil war.” Dred Scott was a Missouri slave who had a supreme court case which became one of the big pushes towards...
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...The Civil War was a remarkable moment in history. This war went from 1861 to 1865, between the North and South of the United States. It started because the North wanted a unified country, while the South wanted state right’s, not a federal government. The war continued because the South wanted slaves, unlike the North. This war is a time in history that will never be forgotten. The North and South had always been drifting apart because of the major differences in civilization and economy (Guelzo). The main factor being slavery. Since the South was so agricultural, they thought that making slaves do their work was acceptable. They had many big farms and needed workers, so instead of working themselves, they made slaves do their work for them. The North had their own agricultural resources and did not...
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