Civil War Causes

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Many people can argue that the main cause of the American Civil War was slavery, and whether it was a necessity to the economy or if it was morally wrong. Events leading up to the Civil War would follow under the categories of political; Lincoln/Douglas, The Nullification Crisis, and the Kansas/Nebraska Act. Economical; northern industrialization vs. southern cotton kingdom, tariffs and taxes, and the Whiskey Rebellion. And social; Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Dred Scott case, and the caning of Sumner.
Economically, the southerners were far wealthier than the northerners. The south’s economy has heavily relied upon their “cotton kingdom” and the slaves that were there for the hard work out on the fields. The northerners, on the other hand, were highly …show more content…
The strength of Uncle Tom's Cabin is its ability to illustrate slavery's effect on families, and to help readers empathize with enslaved people. Stowe's characters freely debated the causes of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Law, the future of freed people, what an individual could do, and racism. Pro-slavery forces claimed that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible, that Tom was too noble, and accused Stowe of writing unrealistic, one-sided images of Southern slavery. Anti-slavery advocates and reformers praised the book for putting a human face on those held in slavery, emphasizing the impact slavery had on families. The Dred Scott Decision was brought before the United States Supreme Court, 10 years after the initial trial where Dred Scott tried to sue for his freedom. The court decided that all people of African ancestry could never become citizens of the United States and therefore could not sue in federal court. The court also ruled that the federal government did not have the power to prohibit slavery in its territories. The caning of Sumner was a result of the Nebraska-Kansas Act. Sumner gave a speech called "The Crime Against Kansas" in the speech, Sumner characterized Preston Brooks's cousin, South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a Democrat, as a pimp for slavery. Two days after the speech, Brooks attacked Sumner on the Congress floor with a
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