Causes of the American Civil War
No issue dominates the history of early eighteenth and nineteenth century America like the problem of slavery. It is amazing that even today, over 130 years after the Civil War started, there is still passionate debate regarding the "cause" of the Civil War. The curious thing is that although slavery was the moral issue of the nineteenth century that divided the political leaders of the land, the average American had very little interest in slaves or slavery. Most Southerners were small farmers that could not afford slaves. Most Northerners were small farmers or tradesmen that had never even seen a slave. But political leaders on both sides were very interested in slaves and slavery. Leaders from the south argued that the Southern plantation was a benevolent and paternal institution, where Southern slave-owners generally behaved with fatherly concern toward their slaves (southern gentlemen). Political leaders from the north believed that slavery was a profit-oriented system, a capitalistic institution that was flourishing, not dying at the time of the Civil War. They saw slavery as a systematic method of controlling and exploiting labor. Whatever the case, the reasons a nation goes to war ar
Although the majority of the American people wanted to avoid Civil War and were content to allow slavery to die a slow, inevitable death, the most influential political leaders of the day were not. On the southern side people were willing to make war to guarantee the propagation of their "right" to own slaves. On the northern side, abolitionists were willing to make war in order to put and immediate end to the degrading institution of slavery. These persons, through either words or action were able to convince the majority that it was necessary to go to war and in order to convince them, they justified the war with arguments that only indirectly referred to the subject of slavery (for example states rights.) Southern politicians convinced their majority that the South, if allowed to secede, was really striking a serious blow at democratic government. In these arguments, both southern and northern politicians were speaking the truth, just not in its entirety. They knew th! ossibly be responsible for turning slavery into such a wretched thing. Instead, the fragile, weak, argumentative northerners brought the hostility upon the southerners, forcing them to be unknowingly taken advantage of.
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Approximate Word count = 2125
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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