Individuals That Contributed To The Civil War

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Individuals That Contributed To The Civil War

The Civil War was brought about by many important

people, some that wanted to preserve and some that wanted

to eradicate the primary cause of the war, slavery. There

were the political giants, such as Abraham Lincoln, and

Stephen Douglas. There were seditious abolitionists such

as John Brown, escaped slaves such as Dred Scott, and

abolitionist writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe. These

were the people who, ultimately, brought a beginning to the

end of what Lincoln called “a moral, a social, and a

political wrong”(Oates 66).

Southern states, including the 11 states that formed

the Confederacy, depended on slavery to support their

economy. Southerners used slave labor to produce crops,

especially cotton. Although slavery was illegal in the

Northern states, only a small proportion of Northerners

actively opposed it. The main debate between the North and

the South on the eve of the war was whether slavery should

be permitted in the Western territories recently acquired

during the Mexican war, which included New Mexico, part of

California, and Utah. “Opponents of slavery were concerned

about its expansion, in part because they did not want to

compete against slave labor”(Oates 15).

In 1851, a literary event startled the country.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, an American writer and abolitionist,

wrote an antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, that was

published serially in a newspaper and in book form in 1852.

“It was a forceful indictment of slavery and one of the

most powerful novels of its kind in American literature.

The success of the book was unprecedented, selling 500,000

copies in the United States alone within five years, and it

was translated into more than 20 foreign languages”(Oates

29). It was widely read in the States and abroad, and

moved many to join the cause of abolition. The South

indignantly denied this indictment of slavery. “Stowe’s

book increased partisan feeling over slavery and

intensified sectional differences. It did much to solidify

militant antislavery attitude in the North, and therefore

was an important factor in the start of the American Civil

War”(Oates 31).

In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act,

which created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and

stated that each territory could be admitted as a state

“with...

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Instead they joined the lower South with the secession of

Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. This

secession by the South lead to the opening to the American

Civil War.

The war over slavery was brought about by many

important people, who used many different ways to express

their points of view. Some exhibited their dissatisfaction

with slavery by debating, some by using violence, some by

suing in court, and some by writing a story. These were

all effective strikes against the South, and primary causes

of the war. In conclusion, these people ultimately brought

a beginning to the end of what Lincoln called, “a moral, a

social, and a political wrong”(Oates 66).

Bibliography

Bradford, Ned. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Appleton-Century Inc., New York. 1956.

Oates, Stephen B. The Whirlwind of War. Harper Collins Publishers, New York. 1998.

Woodworth, Steven E. Davis and Lee at War. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 1995.

“Emancipation Proclamation”. http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Lincoln/emancipate. html

“Jefferson Davis to Congress of the Confederate States”. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pjdavis/620225.html

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