The Civil War
When the discoveries of America there were
no slaves, but rather people looking for a better future, and future built on
dreams. The English came to America by the hundreds, this was back in 1619. The
development was just to settle, and it was until the late 1600’s that indenture
servants were switched to slaves. Then this would start the expansion of the
United States in the East Coast, all the way from the North to the South.
Creating problems against the movement to have slavery abolished and make suck
act illegal. To think of such matters was an outrage since slavery helped move
the economy of the North with its cotton production in the South. Such disputes
would cause what was known as the Civil War. A war that lasted 4 years, yet
there were reasons for such event to occur.
One
of the central issues of the Civil War was, slavery. Such delicate things
influenced power in the Senate and the House of Representatives, so in 1787,
all the slaves would be counted in each state and multiplied by three fifths.
Power was starting to be fought in the government over which states had more
power in congress. During this time the industrial revolution was starting to
arise. Giving the North years after earing of $1.5 billion, and $155 million to
the South, already there were great economic divisions with development. Then
in 1820 there was the Missouri Compromise, which made Missouri a slave sate,
and Maine became a state with no slavery to balance the outcomes in the
congress. Few years later there were about 50 anti-slavery movements formed in
the United States fighting for the right of African Americans to be free. Also
another event that started to trigger tension between the North and the South
was the African American revolt in 1831 by Nat Turner.
Congress
continued to create rules and laws, one of them was the gag rule in 1836 which
for eight years automatic tabled all antislavery petitions and thus prevented
them from being read in the House. This type of laws inspired women to reach
out for freedom also. Then in 1846, Henry David Thoreau demonstrated the
importance of individuals reforming their own lives. This was also part of the
newspaper by Frederick Douglas who created an anti-slavery newspaper. It was
contradictory during this time period for some of the people who were fighting
against slavery to try and act against it when they owned several slaves, this
was building tension between the North and the South once again because of the
economic impacts and social hypocrisy from the North since it depended on the
South to boost its economy with their cotton. During this time also out of 3.2
million African Americans, on the 12% were free men and women.
After
several disagreements, the union could not agree if the South would remain part
of the Union. In 1854 Stephen Douglas runs for president and has creates the
Kansas Nebraska Act, in which people from that territory would decide whether
or not that state would be a slave sate of a free state. Yet people from his
own political party did not agree on such acts and decided that he was selling
himself to the South by doing this acts. By the year 1860 9 of the 10 largest
cities were in the North, and only one in the South. This would mean that the
North was having a higher development with its trade and immigration coming
from England for example was that people saw slavery as something wrong to do.
Also when Texas became part of the US, all people who would go there would be
free men. Also people in California and Utah were to decide for themselves if
slavery was legal. At the end several of this actions build up to Civil War.
When
it comes to economic matters, and social control it tends to be hard to obtain
equality for two sides fighting over who is right, or who is wrong. The steps
towards the Civil War were many political and economical actions that people
did not cope with produced discomfort among the population of the 19th
century. The North depended on the South, as the South depended on the North.
The North needed the cotton from the South to export to the world, becoming a
leading country during the 19th century in cotton, and the South
the North with their exportation. There was a supply and demand of slaves that
made the revolts for the freedom of slavery. Yet all of this was some of the
acts that gave birth to one of the biggest wars in the US, The Civil War, from
1861-1865.
Stephen Douglas
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