Events Leading up to the Civil War

Events Leading up to the Civil War

In the American historical narratives, the Civil War stands as the central event that had the most significant in its present status.  The revolution of 1776-1783 was a vital ingredient in the creation of America; the civil war, which took place between 1861 and 1865, held the fate of what the country would turn into in the future. The Civil War began as a result of various long-term disagreements and tensions about the life and political trends of the Americans.  Residence and politicians from the Northern and Southern states exhibited a severe controversy over some national matter for almost a decade before the breakout of the Civil War. The then American society lifestyle steep in the old-age culture of white supremacy plus a prosperous agricultural economy that relied on cheap labor form slave, the Southern states valued slavery as a way of survival. This section seeks to discuss some of the crucial matters and events that triggered denoted the start of the Civil War. The impact of these events on the American community after the war will also be an essential aspect of this discussion.    

During the period of Declaration of Independence, the year 1976, slavery in 13 British American colonial territories was not only to remain legal but also was to be empowered since it played a significant role in terms of American’s economic and social growth. Before the events of the American Revolution, slavery was a well-established business, and African Americans did qualify whatsoever to conduct such business. During this period, the white supremacy in American society grew more robust, and even after revisiting the constitution in 1789, the election was availed to a few black people. The slaves remained out of the equation (Nagler, et al., 2016). in 1820, the Missouri Compromise asserted that Missouri was to stay in the slave business, and Maine would be a free state. This act was later revisited and replaced by the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Kansas was a slave state, whereas Nebraska was a free state and gave its residence power to choose whether or not to engage in slavery.

Nonetheless, there were growing tensions of abolishing slavery, a move several Northern states had embraced by enacting anti-slavery laws and altogether quitting slavery. For instance, Dred Scott of 1850s would mean that individuals had settled in the states that prohibited slavery had not been their freedom; thus, they were no chances of African Americans becoming legal American citizens. This move angered several American citizens, but they were limited by the fact that they had no right to sue. Again, the United State’s Supreme Court vindicated that African Americans, both slaved and free, were not American citizens; thus, the right to appeal could not apply to them. Later the court noted that Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, directing that the federal government did not have the powers to control or stop slavery. Two years after the court’s ruling, the powder keg was ignited by John Brown and his followers, hoping to use some weapons to incite slaves’ rebellions in the Southern states. After holding an engine house for one night, Brown was overpowered by the detachments of marines that were under the command of Colonel Robert Lee (Nagler, et al., 2016). He was captured and tried of treason that and punished by hanging. After this event, it was clear that the chances of solving the quiz of slavery peacefully were minimal.

The move was supported by the progress that the Northern states dwelled much on industries than agriculture, thus enjoying the benefit of the constant inflow of European immigrants. Instead of the victims of potato famine during the 1840s to 1850s being allowed in as refugees, they were to be incorporated as factory laborers earning low salaries; thus, slaves were less useful in the region.  After the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, the cotton businesses became extraordinarily profitable and demanded more slaves; therefore, the southern states later turned into a one-crop economy (Neff, 2016). Before the beginning of the Civil War, there were over 4 million slaves in the southern region. The gap created between the industry-ruled Northern states and had little concern with agriculture was growing huge and creating tensions, but at the same time needed to buy cotton from the Southern states as raw material for their industries.

The federal and states rights discussions had ruled the clouds since the period of the American Revolution. As a result, two camps emerged divided by their positions on the government. One party was in favor of greater rights to be accorded to the states, while others felt that the federal should have more rights to control the American community. The weaknesses of the articles of the then constitution were outweighed by the political temperatures that were rising steadily and gave in, resulting in political assassinations that triggered the civil war. The 3 British colonies that had held onto the slave trade form an unreliable confederation that with an extremely ineffective government. However, after the Civil War broke, it offered a chance for the then leaders to secretly build a harmonized Constitutional Convection that later created the United States Constitution.

References

Nagler, J., Doyle, D. H., & Gräser, M. (Eds.). (2016). The Transnational Significance of the American Civil War. Springer.

Neff, J. R. (2016). Honoring the Civil War dead: Commemoration and the problem of reconciliation. University Press of Kansas.