The causes, course and repercussions of the Civil War
By: Draven M. Johnston
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” This quote was taken from Abraham Lincoln’s speech to the Republican Convention on June 16, 1858. This quote told the convention that the United States can not survive half salve and half free. The country needs to do something to stay strong and united. To try and stay united that states felt that war was the only way to settle the salve and non-slave issue. The war lasted from 1861-1865 and was between the North (The Union) and the South (The Confederacy). The Union wanted to abolish the slaves and make every state, free but the Confederacy wanted people to keep their slaves The Civil War started due to many controversies like whether to free the slaves or keep them, who to allow into the country’s government and how to deal with the ever changing economy. The course of the Civil War was very brutal including over 135 battles claiming thousands of lives making this war the bloodiest conflict American had seen at that time. Having this war caused many problems that this country had to deal with. Everything suffered from family issues to who became President preceding the war.
The Civil War was between the North and the South. It started because of many disagreements between the North and the South. One of the main disagreements was slavery. In the South 43% of families had slaves. The slaves were used in the fields and in the house. Slaves did everything for the southerners. On the other hand, the North did not have slaves. The northerners did not need slavery. The North made their living on factories and mass production. This lead to the North feeling that slavery was wrong and concluding that slavery needed to be abolished. The union wanting to abolish slavery did not sit well with the Southerners who felt that they could not live without their slaves.
The thought of slavery brings us to the next main cause of the Civil War; the change in government in 1861. Between the 1820’s and 1860’s the Democrats controlled the government. The government was all changed when James Buchanan, a Democrat and America’s 15th President, term was over. He was known, at the time, as the worst President America had ever had. The people of America then thought that something needed to change, so the Republican Party was created. It was created to challenge the Democrat’s platform. The first “Republican” president, Abraham Lincoln was elected because Americans thought that he would change the circumstances of the country. The election caused trouble because the southerners felt threatened by him because of his beliefs against slavery. The Confederate states felt that he wanted to completely abolish slavery. President Lincoln just wanted to stop the spread of slave states.
The President was in control of a lot of things, with the economy being a main one. The economy is where the next cause of the Civil War comes from. Economics caused a lot of tension between the North and the South. The North was more popular because they had the big factories and the ability to produce items in a short amount of time. But the South had to wait till planting season and the South also had to wait months for the products to grow. Therefore the North got more money than the South, so they had less money to put towards workers. The economy helped fuel slavery because slavery was the only way the South was able to try and keep up with the North.
The Civil War lasted between 1861-1865 and these 4 years consisted of death, depression and battles. The first battle occurred when the Confederates fired on the union forces at Ft. Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. From then on until the end of the war there were more than 135 battles claiming more than 620,000 Union and Confederate deaths. The Civil War battles also resulted in over 19,000 casualties. The casualties consisted of either deaths or severe war wounds. This was just one of the many reasons that the Civil War was named one of the bloodiest wars America had ever fought. During the Civil War many famous documents were signed led to a lot of change for America. Two of the most famous documents would have to be The Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The Emancipation Proclamation (signed in the years of 1863) was a turning point for America because it was proclaiming the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation’s 4.0 million slaves. The official ending of the Civil War was on April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate Army surrendered. But fighting continued on until General Stand Watie surrendered on June 23, 1865. Following the two surrenders was the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.
The Civil War had many consequences. The consequences ranged from physical disruption, economic failure and the destruction of America’s infrastructure. The South suffered the most destruction and economic failure. The South’s infrastructure came out the worst due to the south being where most of the battles were fought. The roads, towns and plantations were completely destroyed. The war also didn’t leave any time for planting because the Union troops burned the crops during prime planting season.
When the war ended the economy was also hit. The economy started to go down when all of the money went into supplies for the war instead of other essentials like food. It was so bad that the government had to send in the military to take control for a while to help get the economy back on track. To help with rebuilding the economy, loans were taken out from other countries.
After the war ended, the South needed help to rebuild. Reconstruction then took over lasting from 1865 – 1877. This was a time for America to try and rebuild itself from the disasters caused by the Civil War. It was also a time to try at America’s first ever interracial democracy. The northern victory brought along a lot of changes during the reconstruction for African-Americans in the South. The victory allowed them freedom from their master and more rights than they had ever been exposed to. Many laws were passed and documents were signed to allow blacks to be able to have the same privileges that the whites had. Some black Southerners were even given a chance to run for office. Happiness did not last long seeing as how the northerners soon gave up their priorities of protecting the former slaves. Reconstruction then came to an end and again the White remained supreme.
The causes, course and consequences of the Civil War, automatically evokes sadness. This war consisted of cruelty, deaths, money loss, family separation and the destruction of most of the south’s infrastructure. This all would not have happened, though, if it would not have lead to a good outcome eventually. All of the events that occurred, happened for a reason. The reason being the unity of our country and the freedom of African-Americans.
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