Understanding the Importance of the American Civil War

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Understanding the Importance of the American Civil War The American Civil War remains one of the most heated and highly debated pieces of history in not only the United States, but also the entire modern world. It remains so not only in its origins, but in the goals of each side, and the effects it had on American culture. The effects, as I will demonstrate much later, were not limited exclusively to the United States, and extended to many foreign ideals and practices as well. This demonstrates the importance of this war politically and socially to modern history. In order to completely understand the political and social reasons behind this bloody period in American history, one has to look back over thirty-years prior to the first shot at Fort Sumter. ?A small cadre of activists advocating the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery emerged in the 1830s?They encountered massive opposition?by the Southern slaveholding interest?[and] encountered Northerners? fears that agitation to end slavery would almost certainly destabilize the fragile Union and could result in the liberation of millions of black slaves, who would then migrate northward.? From this quote one can already see two key elements: the idea of slavery as an institutional wrong, and the racism on the part of Northerners. This demonstrates why this war was so hard to explain. If Northerner?s wanted slavery abolished, but were still fearful of coinciding with blacks as freedmen, then why did Northerners choose to fight the rebellious South? A more practical way to view this is by looking at this conflict from an economical and political point of view. These two are what drove the South to drastic measures, and what drove the North to ... ... middle of paper ... ... war that in actuality never ceased? I think it is best summed up in a passage I ran across while doing a day of observation at Battle Creek Middle School in St. Paul, MN: ?Learning about what was can help you turn what is into what will be.? Works Cited 1.Perman, Michael, Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998), 31. 2.Gunderson, Gerald, ?The Origins of the American Civil War? The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Dec., 1974): 916. Accessed on: http://www.jstor.org/ 03-04-02. 3.Leichtle, Kurt Dr., Lecture Notes (02-20-02 & 02-22-02). 4.Harsh, Joseph L., ?Battlesword and Rapier: Clausewitz, Jomini, and the American Civil War,? Military Affairs, Dec. 1974, 133-138. Accessed on: http://www.jstor.org/ 03-04-02. 5.Golden, Randy, accessed at: www.ngeorgia.com/history/why.html 03-04-02.

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