“I would rather be assassinated than see a single star removed from the American flag.” - Abraham Lincoln, 16th American President 1860 - 1865.
"I would rather be assassinated than see a single star removed from the American flag." - Abraham Lincoln, 16th American President 1860 - 1865.1
The years 1861 to 1865 contained the bloodiest war in the history of America, the American Civil War. It was fought between the Union (the Northerners, made up of 27 states) and the Confederates (the Southerners, made up of 11 states). There are several reasons for the cause of this horrific war.
The differences between the North's and the South's way of life was a major problem.
The North was industrial, they had factories, mines and small farms, so they didn't have a need for slaves, and they developed economically faster than the South, which was mainly agricultural, having large farms called plantations. These demanded a cheap source of labour, the slaves. In the South, the people saw Northern opposition to slavery as a threat to their economy and lifestyle.
Slavery was a very important part of the Southerner's lifestyle. Slavery had actually been on the way out in 1793, but a Northerner named Eli Whitney invented a contraption called a Cotton Gin, which was a machine that allowed cotton to be processed much faster. As a result, more slaves were needed so that the cotton could be picked faster. Of course this was not the only activity that slaves were required to do, slaves were needed for housework and work on other kinds of plantations as well. By 1860, 1 out of 7 Americans belonged to another, in total there were about 4 million slaves. There were many campaigns against slavery, but there was a particular book written in the 1850s that moved a lot of people against slavery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin was written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Northerner. Although most of the book was written in Brunswick, Maine, and the author spent approximately one weekend in a slave state, the book's portrayal of slavery's cruelty moved readers like nothing else had. It was sentimental, patronizing, not plausible in many details, but 300 000 copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin were sold in America in a year, and one million and a half were in print worldwide. Queen Victoria of England wept over it. Within three years of publication, about 30 southern novels about slavery ...
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Uncle Tom's Cabin was written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Northerner. Although most of the book was written in Brunswick, Maine, and the author spent approximately one weekend in a slave state, the book's portrayal of slavery's cruelty moved readers like nothing else had. It was sentimental, patronizing, not plausible in many details, but 300 000 copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin were sold in America in a year, and one million and a half were in print worldwide. Queen Victoria of England wept over it. Within three years of publication, about 30 southern novels about slavery as a good thing had been published. Eight years later, another thing happened that would be a cause for war: The election of Abraham Lincoln.
The Democrats (who were in power before the war) were split over slavery, some were for it, some were against it. A new party, the Republicans, chose a man called Abraham Lincoln to run for President. Lincoln's intentions were to stop the spread of slavery. He was a moderate, meaning that he wasn't a conservative but he wasn't extraordinarily radical either. Some people believed that his opposition to slavery didn't go far enough, that he wouldn't be able to rid America of slavery if he became President. Most Southerners didn't think this though, they felt threatened by the thought of Abe Lincoln becoming President, because he would banish slavery. On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected President, with only 40% of the vote. A newspaper, the Richmond Whig, stated that it was 'undoubtedly the greatest evil that has ever befallen the country'.2 Five months after Lincoln's election, seven states withdrew from the Union, leaving 27 states with Free Kansas preparing to join. The states that remained in the Union would simply not accept the country being broken up. The war began the year after Lincoln was elected.
The war started at 4:30am, April 12, 1861, when Fort Sumpter was fired on. 68 Union men under Major Anderson's command were in Fort Sumpter at the time. General Scott had advised President Lincoln to abandon the fort, he said that it would be impossible to re-supply it, and the Attorney General, Edward Bates, was sure that re-supplying the fort would lead to civil war. William H. Seward sent unauthorized assurances to the South saying that Fort Sumpter would be peacefully abandoned, which muddled things up a little. On April 6, Lincoln told the Governor of South Carolina that he would provision the fort, but unless it was attacked, he would not rearm it. At midnight on April 12, James Chestnut and three other Confederate emissaries rowed out to Fort Sumpter to give Major Anderson a ultimatum from the Confederate Secretary of War: He had until 4am to surrender otherwise South Carolina batteries would open fire. Anderson refused to surrender. Despite the impact of 334 shells, the Union Defenders held out, and no one was seriously hurt or killed. Anderson called for a truce after 34 hours of bombardment. This event started the war, which was eventually won by the Union.
The South lost for many reasons, but the main reason would be the fact that most of the factories were in the North, so the South didn't get provisions and extra weapons when they needed them. Some went to great pains to get more equipment. In fact, there was one battle that was fought because the Southern soldiers heard that there was a shoe factory in a nearby town, so they attacked this town in order to get new shoes. Also, the South had a much smaller population, so they had less soldiers in their army. The Southern army was often better led than the Union army, but this didn't matter because it's great numbers and equipment led the Union to victory.
The differences between the economies and lifestyles of the North and Southern states caused the separation of the two areas. The Southern states seceded from the Union, calling themselves the Confederates. These events and more produced the inevitable Civil War.
Bibliography
* Bowen, John, The History and Battlefields of the Civil War, Grange Book, Rochester, UK, 1998.
* Cantwell, John, A Brave New World? An American History, Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, Australia, 1994.
* Farmer, Alan, The American Civil War 1861-1865, Hodder & Stoughton, London, UK, 1996
* Farmer, Alan, The Origins of the American Civil War 1846-1861, Hodder & Stoughton, London, UK, 1996
* Thatcher, U. S. etal (eds.), The Universal World Reference Encyclopedia : Volume 8, Consolidated Book Publishers, Chicago, U.S., 1961.
* The Civil War, Dir. Ken Burns, Florentine Films, 1991.
* Ward, Geoffrey C., Burns, Ric, Burns, Ken, The Civil War, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, U.S., 1991.
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: The Civil War, directed by Ken Burns (see bibliography).
2 : The Civil War, by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ric Burns and Ken Burns (see bibliography), page 26.
