The Inevitability Of The Civil War

The Civil War started in 1861 and was between two factions in the United States-the Union and the Confederacy. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, and millions more were wounded in battle. This begs the question: Did all these people really have to die? Could this war have been avoided? To answer these questions, it is essential to look at the events leading up to the war and what caused them. One cause for the Civil War is due to the issue of slavery. While some people today argue that it was solely due to state’s rights, there is no doubt that slavery played a significant role in causing the war. There are excerpts from Thomas N. Bonner’s “Civil War Historians and the Needless War Doctrine,” writings by Frederick Douglas, and by David …show more content…
In an effort to show the effect that “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” had, David Potter writes in, “Fire-Eaters, Fugitives and Finality that,” History cannot evaluate with precision the influence of a novel upon public opinion, but the northern attitude toward slavery was never quite the same after Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Men who had remained unmoved by real fugitives wept for Tom under the lash” (140). Frederick Douglass wrote in “the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” about the injustice of slavery. By the end of his story, he is telling his story to white people in the North and further changing their opinions about slavery. To illustrate the impact that Douglass had on ending slavery, he writes,” I could do but little but what could, did with joyful heart, and never felt happier than when in an anti-slavery meeting” (117). These books drove an even bigger wedge between the two opposing parties in the United States. Douglass’s work and Uncle Tom’s Cabin played a key role in ensuring the inevitability of the Civil