Antebellum Period, The Civil War, And The Reconstruction Period

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The American Civil War consists of some undisputed facts such as who won the war, who were the presidents of the North and the South, and even who the generals were. Modern scholars view slavery as a major component of the Civil War with different interpretations of how slavery affected the American society during the antebellum to beyond the war that freed the slaves. This American event is much like the plot of a story where there are three components: conflict, climax, and resolution which are represented by the Antebellum Period, the Civil War, and the Reconstruction Period. By taking a sample of the writing of historians and analyzing their methodologies, we can see that the selection of scholarship written on different topics shows slavery …show more content…

Within this period struggle were the slaves, the source of the growing chasm. This was evidenced by the 1820 Missouri Compromise and the Wilmot Proviso, which was directly related to the issue of slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act, one element of the Compromise of 1850, brought slavery northward to the anti-slavery citizenry of the North thus placing responsibility on the northern population. This culminated in conflicts with slave catchers and court battles over the capture of slaves in the northern states. Was this chasm cultural, an issue over slavery or was there no chasm between the North and the …show more content…

A central authority such as the Confederate government was essential to have a chance at winning the war, but the southern states were fighting their own government over the control of their soldiers more so than the Union troops. Niven sums the predicament the South had, “They had failed not because they had tried to preserve State Rights, but because State Rights had prevented them from working in unison.” Parks seconds Niven’s statement as he explains how the Confederate legislature understood that their independence depended on a centralized power and without it, there would be no success. For Niven and Parks, Governor Brown played a part in the failure of the southern

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