Civil War: A Feminist Analysis

United States history from 1800 to 1859 was demonstrating national greatness and national unity. Yet, by 1860 North and South were so polarized that the lower South seceded immediately upon Lincoln’s election. In the decades leading up to the civil war there were division within divisions at work that led Southerners to believe that they had no other recourse but to secede from the Union. This paper will assess the reasons why compromise seemed impossible in 1860. By providing an assessment of when civil war became inevitable and why. This paper discusses the political and cultural tension in America leading up to the civil war and beyond, by discussing the feminist movement, the expansionist period of the 1840s, the compromise period
In the Minor v. Happersett case, Mrs. Virginia Minor stated she was a “… white citizen of the United States,” and should have the right to vote in the 1872 elections. However, Chief Justice C. J. Waite provided a detailed description of what is considered to be a “citizen,” but since the Fourteenth Amendment cites only “male” citizens have the right to vote it was up to the states to make changes to the definition of citizen, citing “If the law is wrong, it ought to be changed; but the power for that is not with us (the Court).” Also, the same can be said for the United States v Susan B. Anthony case, where she voted in 1872, but since she was declared a “woman” she did not have the right to vote. Besides preventing the vote for women, the Court decided cases on denying professional status and the right to divorce. In Bradwell v. Illinois, Bradwell believed that Fourteenth Amendment granted her, “as a citizen,” the right to practice law in the State of Illinois. The Court ruled that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not include the right to practice a profession, declaring only the state had the right to grant professional status. In Waldron v. Waldron, the Court ruled against Mrs. Waldron claiming the reasons she presented to granting a divorce was “inadmissible, because of irrelevancy” ruling for the husband denying the
However, a growing tension and sectionalism between free and slave states began to materialize. Thomas Hietala’s book Manifest Design provides evidence for the development of tension and sectionalism in the 1840s. His main discussion centers on John Tyler and James K. Polk’s administration and their acquiring eight hundred million acres of land for the United States, annexing Texas, acquiring New Mexico and California from Mexico, and negotiating for possession of Oregon below the forty-ninth parallel. Both administrations sought to enhance the power of the United States, through the manipulation of trade, monopolize essential raw materials, and to open additional overseas