Cause Of The Civil War Essay

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Introduction
The American Civil war occurred during the years 1861 – 1865, and as stated in the article titled “The Civil War”, it “was the cauldron that created modern America. The war preserved the Union, ending the possibility of the American nation dividing into two or more separate countries, in the process altering the nations politics and government, creating a strong presidency and an increasingly important federal infrastructure” (Finkelman sec. 1) However, the American Civil War did not come without coast, as wars never do, an estimated 620,000 men lost their lives in the line of duty. One of the many, yet major causes of this war, came about through slavery; and the standpoint that the northern states took, wanting to abolish slavery, and the southern states not only wanting to keep slavery, but expand it. There were two main types of states in America at this time, the free states in the industrialized Northern states, and slave states in the rural southern states. Both, however, wanted to convert the other states into their ideology of what a state should be. According to Authors Tim and Beth Rowland in the article “Was Slavery The Main Reason For The Civil War?” “Historian David Blight’s observation “All memory is prelude” rings true according to a recent McClatchy-Marist poll of 1,249 Americans on the Civil War. When asked whether slavery was the main reason for the conflict” (Rowland and Rowland sec.1), the answer of almost 60% of the people was “yes” keep in mind, this survey asked if it was the “main” cause, not “a” cause; that means that slavery can undoubtedly be considered one of the many causes of the Civil War. The difference between the North and the South The industrialized North consisted of factories, immigrant workers, and apartment styled living, whereas the south was mostly farmland with slaves as workers. In the North, factory workers were mostly immigrants who came flooding into American states such as New York, from Europe; earning on average 10 cents an hour. However, in the south, the slaves worked for free, although, they required a hefty one-time charge of around 2,000 dollars. As time went on, slaves became increasingly hard to come by, due to the fact that the import of slaves from Africa was banned; meaning that slaves would have to be purchased from other plantations. This would be profitable for the south if more states became slave states, because the southern states would then be the capital of slaves, both selling and using slaves, profiting off of them in multiple ways other than work. Coinciding, the northern states were working hard to make sure that the expansion of the south and their “slave state” ideology never excelled. The northern factories had no shortage of workers, and in fact, the immigrant workers used at the factories, were cheaper than the southern Slaves, due to the fact that they did not require a hefty one-time fee, and there was just so many
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The North wanted America to remain as a whole, however, the South wanted separation from the union so that they could expand on slavery. The Federal Government look at the actions of the South as if the south was trying to assert authority over the government so that they could abolish laws that they did not agree with. The Federal Government did not like that one bit, and this is when tension started to build. The south tried expanding their territory into the north in order to build strength, however, the north had more money, and resources. The Gold Rush sprung into action which caused many immigrants to move west, completely eliminating the chances of the south making Western states into slave states. The south felt like they had no other choice other than secession, this was a decision that led directly to war. The industrialized North may not have had as much land as the south, although, they did have the ability to mass produce weapons much more effectively than the south did, due to their factories. Within four devastating years, the Southern Confederacy surrendered, and America remained one whole nation, under a Federal

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