Slavery as the root cause of the American Civil War

Civil War

The War

Economic and social differences between the North and the South, states' rights verses federal rights, the fight between the proponents of slavery and abolitionists, and the election of Abraham Lincoln all contributed to the Civil War. However, all of these causes can trace their roots in the institution of slavery. The major reason the southern states succeed was to maintain slavery, the conflict over western lands was about slavery, Lincoln couldn't maintain the union because of slavery, and the production of cotton demanded slavery.

Ultimately, though both sides claimed to want to achieve their objectives peacefully, the South viewed the North as a threat to its way of life, while the North preferred war rather than let the nation perish.

Slavery

It seems incredible today that the institution of slavery was only abolished less than a century and a half ago. The idea that one person could own another is morally reprehensible. Yet, Southerners believed that abolitionists were attacking their way of life and that the Federal government was not doing enough to protect their property from running away. Southerners were also concerned that new states were entering the Union that did not permit citizens to own slaves, the more "free" states that entered the Union, the weaker Southerners' influence in the Federal government would become.

Secession

Despite my feeling on slavery I find it ironic that the North would did not let the Southern States leave the union peaceably, and endeavored to impose their will and beliefs upon them. The issue of slavery's abolition did not become germane to the conflict until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863. Prior to this the sole reason the North fought was to preserve the union was political. The Emancipation Proclamation gave the North a moral purpose in the eyes of world for engaging the South, and it was only after it's issuance that the tide of the conflict shifted. It was soon thereafter, in the summer of 1863, that the fall of Vicksburg, coupled with the victory at Gettysburg gave the North the initiative.

The War's End

General Robert E. Lee unconditional surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, signaled the beginning of the end of the confederacy. President Lincoln wanted to institute a liberal system of Reconstruction in the South, however, his vision of Reconstruction died with his assassination on April 14, 1865. The Radical Republicans dealt harshly with the South and military rule was instituted until Rutherford B. Hayes officially ended Reconstruction in 1876.

The Civil War was a watershed event in the United States. After years of reconstruction the individual states would end up joined together in a stronger union. The war officially ended slavery; however it would be another hundred years before the Civil Rights Movement.