Today in the United States one of the most controversial issues is race relations. Mainstream America would like to exist in an environment of integration and race independent societal construct. However, one cannot negate the existence of racially motivated problems. Slavery, which is a primary component of the development of what we call modern American culture and its abolition could be considered the moment where race relations started to become an issue in the US.

Slavery was abolished after the civil war by President Abraham Lincoln. The question becomes, was the blood shed in the civil war motivated by a moral imperative to end slavery, or was there some other primary causal factor? Was President Lincoln a man driven by a moral agenda or was he an adept statesman who knew that he needed a moral high horse to justify the war which was being fought for other reasons? These questions lie at the center of events which in reality can be considered the start to the shaping of modern day race relations in the United States. By answering them we can understand the intentions and identify the core of the cultural problem we have today.

To understand the motivation of the m

Also, as previously stated, during the Civil War President Lincoln wrote and delivered the Emancipation Proclamation. It is true that this document freed slaves, however, it did not free all of the slaves. It left the slaves of the boarder states in bondage. The Emancipation Proclamation ordered only the slaves released that were in areas still in rebellion.

Such ideas appealed strongly to factory workers in the mushrooming industrial north east. A great textile industry was developing, and a new anthracite-smelting technique was laying the foundations for a great iron industry. Communications were being extended. First canals, then railroads breached the old North/South trade pattern of the Mississippi river system. By 1840, nearly three thousand miles of track radiated from New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. Soon trains were carrying new immigrants to new lands and bringing back wheat and meat. Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago and other cities boomed. Eventually these sections and the North East merged into one economic system.

In 1856 he joined the Republican party, and fairly launched himself on his new career in 1858 when he stood (unsuccessfully) for the Senate against the Democrat Stephen Douglas. In speeches up and down the land he proved his ability as a speaker, and emerged as a national figure, rising rapidly to leadership of his party. He remained as noncommittal as possible on the issue of policy towards slavery where it was established, in an attempt to avoid rousing unnecessary disruptive opposition.

But these developments had one tragic effect: The intensified the division between the industrial North and the South, which remained fixed in old aristocratic ways. In the westward expansion, the Southerners had simply - though vastly - extended the area of plantations worked by African American Slaves. Southern slave labor produced cheap tobacco, rice, sugar, and - most important - cotton, which was in great demand elsewhere. Although the North wanted cotton prices kept low, many Northerners despised the slave system that made the low prices possible. There was rising criticism and a growing campaign to end slavery in the country.

The question of slavery marked the gulf between the South and North; but the war was fought primarily over the issue of succession. From the beginning, Lincoln's major aim had been to keep the Union from disintegrating. He achieved his goal, but the four-year struggle reduced the south to utter exhaustion.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd, South North, Andrew Jackson, Civil War, President Lincoln, Slaves Southern, Lincoln Politicia, Stephen Douglas, Emancipation Proclamation, civil war, abraham lincoln, emancipation proclamation, race relations, industrial north, president lincoln, civil war president, slavery primary, sense justice, issue slavery, slave free, president abraham lincoln,
Approximate Word count = 1984
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)