Civil War Dbq

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“Far better die in such a strife than still to Slavery’s claims concede, … To live thus wage a life-long shame, to die is victory and fame” (American Horizons, p. S14-4). This quote comes from a slave who believed that fighting for his freedom was the only option, even if it meant dying on the battle field. The American Civil War is arguably one of United States history’s darkest moments. War had been brewing for a while, specifically in the earlier part of the 19th Century, as tensions between the industrialized North and the slavery-dependent South began to intensify. Once the South began to secede, Lincoln and his administration recognized the need to act, fearful that the United States would reduce to many small, frail independent countries. …show more content…

“The inevitable negro question would of course be the most [stirred] conversation,” (Letters to the Green Mountain Freeman, p. S14-2). This quote demonstrates that slavery was the “inevitable question,” amplifying the notion of slavery being the driver of war. It was constantly being discussed and questioned about how to approach the matter. On the other hand, it is not uncommon belief that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War, but was rather the different political views between the North and South. The southern states wanted a strong state government, in which the powers were held within individual states; while the northern states wanted a strong central government, power being concentrated in the federal government. The two sides of the nation were also split on political decisions such as the Missouri Compromise, which discussed whether all states above Missouri had to be free states rather than slave states. Although these are all valid points, the underlying cause to each of these events explained was slavery. Without slavery, the South wouldn’t be so opposed to a strong central government. Southerners were opposed to a strong central government because they knew that President Lincoln was against slavery. They feared he would free slaves and ruin their extremely profitable way of living. Political …show more content…

No state officially ceded from the Union until after the election of 1860. When Abraham Lincoln became the President of the United States of America without a single Southern electoral vote, the South became horribly petrified at the misplaced idea that Lincoln intended on ruthlessly putting an end to slavery. Without slavery, the South would be one of the poorest areas of the country. Not only was slave agriculture the main source of income for Southern states, but the majority of commercial investments were placed in the slave industry. A slave ban would have been a tremendous economic hit to the south. The South viewed slavery as a business, in fact the South was so invested in slavery it became common belief that the South used the tremendous wealth produced by the slave business to buy their way into every level of government in the country. They began to theorize that the government was no longer a democracy, but a slavocracy (the rule or domination of slaveholders). The thought of a supposed slavocracy enraged the North and exacerbated its opposition of slavery. This, moreover, contributed additional strain to the frail relationship between the two regions. Southern politicians controlled most leadership positions within congress. These politicians used their power to block the discussion of slavery by implementing the “gag

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