History of the Civil War Essay

Taylor Bennett
April 28, 2013
HIST 156. A lot has been written and discussed about the exact causes of the American Civil War and also the differences between the North and South territories prior to the build of the war. The most responsible known factor for the war was slavery; where the North was determine to stop it and the South remaining firm to maintain it due to being benefited by it economically. Yet another important factor was the disintegration of the Whig or Republican and Democratic political crises. During the beginning of the 1800’s the North and the South began to grow in many separate ways. The differences between the North and South were developed not only by the debate over slavery, but also between economical and governmental or political ways of living. As the North cities grew bigger they became centers of manufacturing goods and wealth, and also had gained many skilled workers to work in these factories or mills. (David M. Kennedy) The North had produced more than 3/4ths of the nation’s wealth while having created a bigger army that included thousands of black soldiers. They had better equipment and supplies to fight the war and with transportation being easier in the North they owned also more than 2/3rds of railroads in the country. (North and South: Different Cultures, Same Country) This also had an effect on their economy to rise and bring in more sources of wealth. While in contrast the South did not have has much manufacturing and not as many skilled workers as the North. Most of their workers were farmers who invested into agricultural farming and most of their income came from plantations and crops such as cotton, rice, sugar canes, and tobacco. (David M. Kennedy) Yet having most of the South’s money coming from the exportation of cotton the North had tried to shut the trade down. The Union government had planned to blockade Southern parts so exports would stop. (North and South: Different Cultures, Same Country) This decreased the amount of Southern cotton to England. The diverse development of the two sides was that most of these workers on the plantations were also slaves. Slavery had become a symbol and characteristic of the two regions differences. The South had believed that slavery was acceptable since slaves were property and were not considered “real” people. They also relied on them heavily more than the North since their whole economy was based around them for growing cotton. (David M. Kennedy) The South did not have to pay for the slaves so this made them more money to buy more slaves and more land while paying their taxes easier. Most of the people up North had worked in factories and mills which made slavery not needed, yet had to pay their people to work in their factories which the North felt this was unfair. The South knew that heavy reliance on slave labor would hurt the South eventually since there was a brewing problem from the North. The North thought that people should not be kept as slaves and believed in making their slave states free. As a consequence to these factors, the Southern states were determined to retain slavery after the Revolution and began the fatal division between a state being “free” or a “slave” state. (David M. Kennedy) Abolitionist’s movement soon spread in the US with an effort to end slavery and valued “all men are equal”. They created newspapers and pamphlets spreading the word to end slavery, yet these were given penalties for anyone bringing written anti-slavery material into the Southern states. Soon abolitionists set gatherings for societies on the Fourth of July, which many believed in a higher law with a commitment to end slavery. This was by looking over and observing parts of the Constitution that protected slavery and one in particular, they refused to obey the Fugitive Slave Act. The runaway slave owners or even representatives would travel north to reclaim captured runaway slaves, yet were sometimes attacked by abolitionist’s

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