Antebellum Period Essay

The Antebellum period is known as the era of time before the Civil War. During this time, the Industrial Revolution and Western Expansion began. With this, canals and railroads were formed, the Second Great Awakening inspired abolitionist movements, and slave rebellions started to become popular. Pre-Civil war also consisted of many technological advances and reforms regarding schools, feminism, and slavery. Because of this the Antebellum period led to conflicts that resulted in the Civil War. Although there were social and economic problems that led to the Civil War, the main causes were political because of the Election of 1860 and Abraham Lincoln’s role in it, Westward Expansion and the creation of the Kansas-Nebraksa Act, and Secession.

The Election of 1860 was held on November sixth and it was when Republican Abraham Lincoln defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. Prior to the election, the Northern and Southern parts of the United States had a lot of tension regarding slavery in territories. During the election, Lincoln's platform was based off of his disapproval of slavery and him wanting to abolish it. Document N is a map of the Election of 1860 and it shows each candidate, the home state of each candidate, their platform, the electoral votes received, and the percent of popular vote received on the map of the United States. When Lincoln won the election, this further strained the North and Souths relationship. The South not wanting slavery to be abolished and Abraham Lincoln becoming president created huge problems. “It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.” (Document M) In Lincoln’s speech, he talks about how slavery will divide the North and the South and this is reinforced when he becomes president, which leads directly to the Civil War.
Westward expansion caused more people to move to the west, and from there slavery triggered rivalries between the North and South.

The Missouri Compromise was made by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries caused by the request of Missouri to be admitted as a slave state in 1819. At the time, the United States consisted of twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. Missouri entering as a slave state would upset that balance. From the Missouri Compromise of 1820 came the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May thirtieth, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Kansas-Nebraska Act angered many in the North who considered the Missouri Compromise to be a long-standing binding agreement, however in the South it was strongly supported. Document J shows a map of the United States split into different territories. Nebraska and Kansas territory are opened to slavery on the map which is what caused a division between the North and South, leading to the Civil

War.
Secession links to the Civil War because of the different opinion formed from it.

With states from the South seceding the United States due to their major differences with the North, the Confederate States of America formed. It was a nation that was established after the Southern secession however, with this Southern secession came Civil War. The first state to secede was South Carolina on December twentieth, 1860. Four months later, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana seceded as well. Later Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee joined them.When Lincoln became president that was the push the South to break away form the United States because of their conflicting opinions on slavery. In document O it says “I hear with pain and anguish the word ‘secession,’ especially when it falls from the lips of those who are emminnently patriotic [...] I hold the idea of a separation of these states—those that are free to form one government and those that are slaveholding to form another—as a moral impossibility. We could not separate the states by any such line if we were to draw it” (Document O). Daniel Webster's speech explains how secession is a bad thing and that it is impossible for it to work. Webster is correct in this, as it leads to the Civil War. Contrary to Webster, John C. Calhoun said, “ ...a State, as a party to the constitutional compact, has the right to secede — acting in the same capacity in which it ratified the constitution … All

this results, necessarily, from the nature of a compact between sovereign parties” (Document E). Calhoun is talking about how a state has the right to secede and go on its own, something that Webster said was impossible and wrong. It is opposing opinions like these that cause conflict between the North and South. These conflicts regarding secession are what led to Civil War.
There were important social and economic reasons for the Civil War however, the main causes were politcal because of Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860, Expansion West, and Secession. It was Lincolns fight for the abolition of slavery that created tesion in the North and South. It was the Souths hate for his views and the support from the North that was an attribute to the start of the Civil War. It was also the expansion west that caused people to seperate from each other depending on their views of slavery. Because of this the North and South grew furhter apart which mad eit easier to lead to war. Lastly, it was secession that caused Sourthern states to leave the United States due to all of the differences they had. It was all of this tension and conflict that eventually lead to the Civil War.