Origins of the American Civil War

The American War was the bloodiest war fought by the American people, beyond the sheer numbers of dead and maimed it was also one of three, perhaps four, wars fought on American soil. Estimates vary, but somewhere in the ballpark of 600,000 soldiers lost their lives and countless others were wounded. The battles weren’t in some far off land, but in cornfields and towns across America and the impact of the Union victory shaped the United States into what it is today. For all of its carnage the…

achieved great things throughout his life including preserving the Union, modernizing the economy, and ending slavery in the United States. President Lincoln gave many important speeches and “was undoubtedly one of the greatest communicators among all American presidents. His words, as a public speaker, writer, debater, humorist, and conversationalist, continue to inspire us to this day” (Wadhwa, n.d.). As you analyze some of his greatest speeches you notice something fascinating. Throughout his…

John C. Rodrigue’s book Reconstruction in the Cane Fields details the change from slavery to free labor in Louisiana over the years prior to the Civil War to the Reconstruction. Specifically focusing on the crop sugar, Rodrigue conveys the message that sugar growing was significantly different from that of cotton and sharecropping. Following the Civil War, the south changed notably in terms of economics, and Rodrigue details this by examining the relationship between Louisiana’s slaves and…

The American Civil War began in 1861 and it did not end until 1865. This war was fought between the Union known as the Northern states and the Confederates known as the Southern states to determine whether the South would secede from the United States. The Southern states were determined on spreading slavery to the Western part of the country while the Northerners were trying to prevent this from happening. According to The American Experiment some of the people from the North even wanted to…

The period of time following the Civil War, referred to as reconstruction, introduced momentous shifts in America and instituted a new and highly significant set of challenges. In 1864, after the Union victory that ended the war, slaves were freed under president Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. While Lincoln did not technically make emancipation one of his stated war goals, his objective to preserve the Union was accompanied informally by his desire to free the slaves. Approximately four…

disliked the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and believed that the state should decide if it wants to be a free-state or a slave-state. Although the North and South were clearly different culturally and economically, separated by their own definition of the American Dream, the passing…

Stephan A. Douglas, an American politician “presented a bill” that “introduced two new territories into the Union” (Seidman 40). These new territories included Kansas and Nebraska. Douglas gave the people an opportunity to choose whether they would allow slavery in their area…

With the commencement of hostilities in April 1861, the Civil War was largely seen as a dispute over states’ rights. From a military standpoint, the South largely considered that its reserve of highly trained military officers and martial tradition of élan would make the difference in a quick, decisive war that would be over by Christmas. The reality of the situation would prove far different. The Civil War was largely the first industrial war, and was perhaps inevitable that the domination of…

James McPherson discusses the differences between the American North and South at length, citing more than just slavery as a divisive issue. Using voices from the north and the south, historians and local newspapers, individuals of note and the common man, McPherson does his best to represent all sides of the argument to show that the general consensus is that the North and South had two radically different outlooks on life. The north was progressive, embracing the Market Revolution and…

The first contact between Union slaves and troops was rather lackluster than its significance in American history would suggest. As the four million slaves of the South were liberated, slave owners often tried to portray Yankees as men with, “long horns on their heads and [pointed teeth] in their mouths.” (Davidson 171) This image supposedly cast a shadow of fear through slave populations, one said to his master, “Wen I see dem coming I shall run like all possess.” However, once the whites left…