How Did The Contribute To The American Civil War?

The American Civil War was a vital event in the history of the United States. The war was a result of a combination of political, social, and economic elements that led to the violent diversity throughout the country. Jason Phillips, the Eberly Family Professor of Civil War Studies at West Virginia University, and author of the 2018 book, Looming Civil War: How Nineteenth Century Americans Imagined the Future, explains that throughout the 1850s, a series of events increased sectionalism, emboldened southern secessionists, and deepened northern resolve to defend the Union and end slavery.1 The Northern states of the US were industrialized and the prosperous economy conflicted with the agricultural Southern states. The Southern states, on the
This contributed to the debates because the Southerners became threatened when Lincoln won since he was an abolitionist. They believed with him becoming president he would abolish slavery and threaten their economic and political power which led to their secession. The overall idea of slavery was the most powerful contribution towards the Civil War. Along with sectionalism, slavery split the United States into two sides. Sides called anti slavery North and pro slavery South. The North didn’t approve of slavery expanding into new states because they didn’t think it was morally the right thing to do. They also believed slavery was bad for the economy because it relied on industry and wage labor. They thought that slavery was “undercutting the value of work by not paying laborers, which could lower wages for everyone even in the North.”8 The South didn’t view slavery in this light, instead they saw slavery as essential to their way of life. They believed slavery was needed to help their economy and plantations become prosperous. When the United States received more land, states wondered whether slavery would be allowed in them or not. The laws and compromises mentioned previously reveal that this led to more conflict, mostly when the North didn’t agree with the Fugitive Slave Act. Also mentioned previously, the 1860 election revealed how important slavery was to the South when just the threat of it scared them to begin an entire new country. Abolitionist movements were also major occurrences that impacted the conflict between the North and the South. Abolitionist movements were eyeopeners to the people of the North to help them realize that slavery was more than a political issue and that it was morally not right. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglas, who was an enslaved man who later became one of the major abolitionist leaders in movements, persuaded more people to