Informative Essay on The American Civil War

The American Civil War was the product of many contrasting political, social and economic views. The Northern view was that the Union states were more powerful therefore their authority was greater than the Southern states. This instigated the fear in the Southern states that the North would strip away their independence and values. Lincoln’s election further exacerbated this by causing the tension to be released into the battlefield. Slavery was one of the main sources of income for the South and the threat of taking all their wealth and stability away caused the Southern states to riot. After winning the Mexican War, new states such as Nevada, California were added to the United States, the North tried to compromise by keeping these new states as “free states” which angered many in the South. These three main components were the leading issues that triggered the American Civil War.

The self-proclaimed authority of the Federal states triggered the built-up response of the Southern states. The united colonies all chose to come together on the 4th of July 1776 as seen in The Declaration of Independence in source A. This primary piece of evidence has been made publicly available by multiple political and historical websites such as ushisotry.org and archives.gov. There were three essential themes that were stated in the Declaration of Independence: one was that God created all men equally and bestowed upon them the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the primary function of government is to defend these rights; and if a government attempts to deny these rights, the people have the right to rebel and form a new government. As stated in source B “Northern popular culture depicted Southerners as decadent, un-Christian sponges ❲ on the contrary Southern popular culture depicted the northerners as❳ cold people who cared little about family and focused everything on the process of making money.”  This secondary piece of evidence was written by Tim Stanley | Published in History Today Volume 61 Issue 9 September 2011. Tim Stanley is an English man studying at the University of London. He didn’t provide any evidence for his claims so he is not a reliable source, however, this source still offers another perspective from an outsider removing any bias. These stereotypes could be applied to the differing views both sides had on slavery. Considering The Declaration of Independence held very religious views, owning slaves was seen as, as stated, unholy sponges referencing the bible. However, slaves in the South were one of the main sources of income, whether it be from the trade of slaves itself or the goods being processed. According to Source B, prior to the conflict, disagreements over taxation had affected ties between the North and the South. Congress had apparently, put punishing levies on foreign imports to fund the North's economic growth. The debt was ultimately paid by the South, which had an agrarian economy and had to import machinery. And then when the 1850s recession hit, Congress increased the import tax from 15% to 37%. The North, on the other hand, were hiring migrants paying them significantly less than the average American, although they saw slavery as being wrong they continued to mistreat migrants up until the 1920s. After the Mexican War ended the seven states that the U.S acquired sparked heavy political controversy. Many southerners wanted to migrate to these new states, alongside their slaves however the Northern parliament wanted to compromise with their own people and keep these states “slave-free”. Historians argue that this was a human rights movement, on the contrary, sources such as BBC, source C, claim that “ ❲The North❳ were concerned that an extra slave state would give the South a political advantage. The South thought new states should be free to allow slavery if they wanted.” BBC is generally considered reliable however I am unaware of the author and the sources used to write this article hence I can not comment on the accuracy or reliability. Many people felt that they were being stripped away of their “property” and rights as Americans by these orders, which eventually led to riots and rebellion. Nevertheless, this source provides evidence of the political structure prior to the Civil War and how many Southerners felt degraded as their economy was at threat of being taken away.

President Lincoln’s failed attempt to compromise on the slavery issue initiated the Civil War by only angering the southerners more. Being a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper speech on February 27, 1860, at Cooper Union, in New York City was logical, well-spoken and affirmed he didn’t want slavery to expand into the new western territories. This speech was well thought out and it gained him important political support. Lincoln released the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, (source D.) Source D is a trustworthy and reliable primary source. Although he didn’t mention much about slavery, many southerners felt threatened by his leadership, they feared that if he were to become the president he would take away their economy, wealth and rights. After Lincoln was elected president with 55.02% of the national votes, many states in the south wouldn’t reveal the result to the public to avoid violence. South Carolina was the first to call for a convention to secede from the Union and within three months of Lincoln's election, seven states had followed, forming the confederacy. Lincoln was desperate to hold the union together, yet he wanted to keep his promises from his election, so he set a compromise. The new states would forbid slavery though the slaves holding states could remain the same. As he said in source E, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it”. His main goal was to keep the union together. However, once the situation escalated it was clear he wanted to keep his values as well, hence

The differing views of both the North and South led to the major conflict which instigated the war to end all American wars, the Civil War. This event has