American Civil War – Gowtham Venkatachalam The American Civil War, widely known in the United States as simply the Civil War was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy. The American civil war was the bloodiest war in American history which wiped out 3% of the USA’s population. The civil war was an unintended, but fortunate war that granted some of the freedoms that the United States has come to symbolize. (World to text intro. Use something like the great fire in Chicago was unintended, but gave Chicago a blank slate from which it has become the best architectural city in the US with so many skyscrapers. Similarly, the Civil War, although bloody, gave Americans many privileges
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From the anti-slavery perspective, the issue was primarily about whether the system of slavery was an anachronistic evil. The strategy of the anti-slavery forces was containment — to stop the expansion and put slavery on a path to gradual extinction. The slave-holding interests in the South denounced this strategy as infringing upon their Constitutional rights. Slavery was illegal in the North which robbed off on the Border States and in Southern cities, but was expanding in the highly profitable cotton districts of the South and Southwest. During the Pre-Civil war era, most Americans agreed that states had certain rights, however, they did not agree as to whether or not those rights carried over when a citizen left the boundaries of the state. The Southern position was that citizens of every state had the right to take their property, specifically slaves, anywhere and they would remain slaves. Northerners rejected this "right" because it was against the law and as the Northern States were “free” states. Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it bring it to extinction. The slave states had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, and seemed like they were going to be a minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. Right before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined to form the
From the anti-slavery perspective, the issue was primarily about whether the system of slavery was an anachronistic evil. The strategy of the anti-slavery forces was containment — to stop the expansion and put slavery on a path to gradual extinction. The slave-holding interests in the South denounced this strategy as infringing upon their Constitutional rights. Slavery was illegal in the North which robbed off on the Border States and in Southern cities, but was expanding in the highly profitable cotton districts of the South and Southwest. During the Pre-Civil war era, most Americans agreed that states had certain rights, however, they did not agree as to whether or not those rights carried over when a citizen left the boundaries of the state. The Southern position was that citizens of every state had the right to take their property, specifically slaves, anywhere and they would remain slaves. Northerners rejected this "right" because it was against the law and as the Northern States were “free” states. Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it bring it to extinction. The slave states had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, and seemed like they were going to be a minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. Right before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined to form the