Causes of the Civil War
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Civil War Essay
Ever since the Constitutional Convention, the issue of slavery has been a “sleeping serpent.” While it had always been a pressing issue, slavery was never fully addressed by the U.S. government and was essentially avoided to prevent controversy. Although this avoidance kept the country relatively safe from the issue for now, it only let the issue grow more controversial as time went by. After the introduction of cotton and the influx of slave labor, slavery became a dominating reality in the South, but so did abolitionism in the North. With both sides opposing each other, the country slowly began to divide and the “sleeping serpent” began to awake. From 1848-1861, tension between the North and the South fiercely grew until the South ultimately seceded from the Union in 1860 and formed the Confederate States of America in 1861. For cultural, geographical, and political reasons, the U.S. found itself in the eve of war, for the “sleeping serpent” had finally arose and the issue of slavery could no longer be ignored.
The cultural differences between the North and the South demonstrated their view towards slavery and the inevitability of conflict after the secession of the South. The North, a primarily industrialized society, never had any use of slavery in the first place. However, the North heavily relied on the South for its textile industries and did not begin opposing slavery until abolitionist movements began in the 1830s. During these movements, abolitionists pushed for the immediate abolishment of slavery; while this idea did not appeal to most northerners, it began the political approach of preventing the spread of slavery. Abolitionists ultimately hit home in the North, however, through the media. William Lloyd Garrison, a famous abolitionist, radically opposed slavery in his newspaper The Liberator, which would turn many northerners against slavery for the next 30 years. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, would present the evil...
Ever since the Constitutional Convention, the issue of slavery has been a “sleeping serpent.” While it had always been a pressing issue, slavery was never fully addressed by the U.S. government and was essentially avoided to prevent controversy. Although this avoidance kept the country relatively safe from the issue for now, it only let the issue grow more controversial as time went by. After the introduction of cotton and the influx of slave labor, slavery became a dominating reality in the South, but so did abolitionism in the North. With both sides opposing each other, the country slowly began to divide and the “sleeping serpent” began to awake. From 1848-1861, tension between the North and the South fiercely grew until the South ultimately seceded from the Union in 1860 and formed the Confederate States of America in 1861. For cultural, geographical, and political reasons, the U.S. found itself in the eve of war, for the “sleeping serpent” had finally arose and the issue of slavery could no longer be ignored.
The cultural differences between the North and the South demonstrated their view towards slavery and the inevitability of conflict after the secession of the South. The North, a primarily industrialized society, never had any use of slavery in the first place. However, the North heavily relied on the South for its textile industries and did not begin opposing slavery until abolitionist movements began in the 1830s. During these movements, abolitionists pushed for the immediate abolishment of slavery; while this idea did not appeal to most northerners, it began the political approach of preventing the spread of slavery. Abolitionists ultimately hit home in the North, however, through the media. William Lloyd Garrison, a famous abolitionist, radically opposed slavery in his newspaper The Liberator, which would turn many northerners against slavery for the next 30 years. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, would present the evil...