Slavery as a Cause of the Civil War

Document Based Question

Slavery as a cause of the Civil War

Every epic battle and war story is like a fairy tale. It has a beginning, middle, and an end. There is always a point in the story where a climax is reached, and it is the events that lead up to the eventful climax that matters. The American civil war began in 1861, and it continued on until 1865. The gory details and battle tactics isn’t recommended for the squeamish, so in their cases, I advise brushing up on the causes of the civil war. There are many factors that influenced the initiation of the war between The United States of America, also referred to as the Union, and the southern slave states. The union was composed of twenty-three Republican states that opposed the expansion of slavery. The tension between anti and proslavery groups grew, and as stated in document A by John C. Calhoun, “…the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by some timely and effective measure, end in disunion.” The southern slave states formed a seceding confederacy and wished to divert from the Union. Each section had disagreements, and while the South feared the government would support anti slavery people, the North felt the slave power already controlled the government. Other primary division factors were economic differences, the fight between anti and proslavery sections, the effects of sectionalism, the influence of the government, and key historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

When it came to the government, there was a standing debate on whether or not slavery should be prohibited or not, and Lincoln had no intention of abolishing slavery. Instead, he had the desire to cease the spread of slavery in new states. Lincoln expressed his point of view in his House Divided Speech in 1858, but there were still political battles of what the policies should be in the new territories. The African American race insisted that the government had no intention to assist them when decisions were made, and the Texas Ordinance stated, “…the confederacy itself, was established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their prosperity.” After the Mexican War, the United States gained the Louisiana Purchase lands. These territories were most likely going to be free soil states, which encouraged southern states to secede. Also, the disagreements between sections lead to the collapse of the Whig and “Know Nothing” political parties. Several ideas were floating around in the hectic atmosphere of how to deal with the opposing sides. David Wilmot created the Wilmot Proviso, which recommended the banning of slavery in the new lands. This idea caused much debate, but Henry Clay soon devised a solution called the Compromise of 1850. It encouraged the balancing of slave and free slaves states, which appealed to the north and the south. Another issue that created much debate was the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854. It created two new states that allowed the new territories