Antebellum America During The Civil War

Midterm essay

Antebellum America was a period in American history where the nation was divided in two. The North, dependent on factories and manufacturing, lived an industrial lifestyle. Cities were overpopulated with people and living conditions were not the best, but the ambition to make money in the North brought people there. The South was not industrialized like the North; instead, it relied on an agricultural lifestyle with wide fields and acres of lands. It produced and exported cotton, sugar, and rice. As differences between these two societies continued to grow, so did the tensions grow as well. The result of this great tension was the Civil War, a war that would unite this divided nation. In the end, the North was victorious
Among those sacrifices was the proposed Marshall Law by the Confederacy. This draft called for basic human rights to be given up in effort to try and win the war. One of the sacrifices that stood out to the people of North Carolina was the removal of habeas corpus. In protest to this demand, the legislation of North Carolina made it clear to the Confederate government, that under no circumstances will North Carolina give up basic human rights, when the original intent of the war was to protect those rights. Furthermore, North Carolina explains that the suspension of habeas corpus was not only wrong but, unconstitutional; it removed the checks and balances that the government had set in place (North Carolina Protest, 251). From this document, it is clear to see the sacrifices that the South was being told to make by their own government, but a closer analysis also exploits two more key points. The first being that members within the South were questioning the actions of the Confederate government, but the second point to be noted is that the motivation of the South, in the war, was lost. North Carolina clearly states that the war was being fought to protect the rights and ways of life of the South, yet here they were being told by their own government to give up the rights they were fighting to protect. It is clear to see that the South was losing track of what they were fighting
The South had lost its way as time progressed, but the same does not seem to be true for the North. Henry Bellows, the president of the sanitary commission, made an announcement declaring the goals of the sanitary commission. Throughout his declaration, Bellows states two important things. The first goal explained was "especially to show how sturdily it held on to its original principle,— the root of whatever good it has accomplished; namely, that the government is, or ought to be, the soldier’s best friend, the only friend in a situation to give him constant and efficient protection; and that the main service any outside allies can afford him must consist in arousing the government to its duties to the soldier, and accustoming the soldier to recognize, respect, and lean upon the government care."(Sanitary Commission,