Events that Lead to the Civil War

Events that Lead to the Civil War

The civil war is known for its issues of slavery and the conflict between the north and the south. The split in the union can be traced as far back as the 1810’s, just as the industrial revolution was beginning. With the industrial revolution’s effects on the north and the south caused the economy to split.

The north became more industrialized; the south started relaying more on agriculture. In the north, machines, interchangeable parts, and mass production took over, and started the building of factories. These first factories were used for making textiles and later evolved to manufacturing a wide variety of goods. This sparked opportunity for jobs, and with immigrants flooding in form Europe it was no problem filling the positions. With the factory system, it was efficient and inexpensive for the north to employ a large work force. The factories caused slavery in the north to die. In the south cotton was becoming king; it was the biggest money marker the south had. Cotton is a very laborious crop, hence the ownerships of a lot of slaves. Unlike the immigrants in the north, slaves were property. Slaves were also much less of a prophet, because when a slave got sick an owner couldn’t just replace him, they needed to take care of their property. In the north if a worker got sick, there were plenty more immigrants waiting for a job.

In 1818 the power balance in congress was equal; ten free states-ten slave states. Then, Illinois became the 11th free state and Alabama followed as the next slave state. There were two more states that wanted to enter the union, Missouri and Maine. This brought about the Missouri compromise of 1820. In 1819, Missouri wanted to join the Union, but in the North, as a slave state. This would make the balance of power in congress unequal. Many Northerners were opposed to the idea, so northern congressmen refused to pass the bill. Northerners proposed that Missouri be a slave state and that no more slaves were to be brought in and all slave children would be free at the age 25, so Missouri would eventually become a Free State. Southerners were opposed to the idea.

Congress debated for many months, and then Henry Clay proposed that Maine enter the Union as a Free State. He also proposed prohibiting slavery above the 36030’ latitude, the southern boundary of Missouri. The South agreed, sin...

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...e planned on giving weapons to slaves so they could rebel against their owners. The south saw this as a threat, that a man was helping blacks kill them and their families. Brown was captured and hung.

The election of November 1860 was the final straw for the south, after Lincoln was elected South Carolina seceded from the union. Abraham Lincoln was a republican, his main goal as president was to preserve the union, not abolish slavery. The seven deep southern states were the next to secede, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. These eight states then formed the confederate states of America, electing Jefferson Davis as their president and Alexander Stephens as their vice president.

The start of the War

April 12, 1861, less than a month after President Lincoln was inaugurated, Lincoln already had trouble with the confederate states of America. All union troops loyal to the north had been expelled form the southern posts and sent back to the north, but one fort was still occupied by union troops, Fort Sumter. Lincoln told Davis that he was going to re-supply the fort. When the ships came with supplies the south fired on the fort starting the war.