Civil War DBQ Essay

The importance of the Civil War The Civil War in 50 Objects, by Henry Holzer and the New-York Historical Society, is a collection of fifty primary sources, varying in type and format. Each of these objects is accompanied by a description of the source, as well as a story which establishes the source in the proper context in history. Through the sources Holzer shows the importance of the Civil War, not only at the time they were created or used, but also establishes its significance for us today. The Civil War transformed the United States in many ways, of course the most noticeable and important being the ending of slavery.

In 1861, war broke out between the seceded states, known as the Confederacy, and the Union. Texas was the seventh state to secede to the Confederacy. They contributed 65,000 Texans to the Civil War. (background essay) Many Texans fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War because of states rights, slavery, and to preserve Texas.

Slavery was a big part of our nation’s history. The North and the South had different opinions of slavery which led to the Civil War. The first arrival of slaves was in 1619. A Dutch ship brought twenty Africans to Virginia and they were sold. It spread to the thirteen colonies and, by 1776, almost 600,000 slaves lived in our country.

Slavery played a central role during the American Civil War. At this time, the primary catalyst for secession was slavery especially due to the resistance of leaders in the Southern politics through attempts by the antislavery political forces of the North to block the slavery’s expansion into the western territories. According to the SCWE, the lives of slaves went through significant changes. In the South, for example, the broad areas of the land were taken control of by the Union Armies. During the war, an active role was played by the slaves in their emancipation.

The period of the Civil War can be classified as one of the bloodiest and tumultuous in the history of the United States. Between 1961 and 1965 more than one million people perished on the battlefield due to an ideology that divided the continental United States. With the defeat of the Confederate secessionist states, the abolition of slavery, and the new amendments incorporated into the constitution, the geopolitical and social history of the young American nation changed utterly. Within the multiple events that occurred during this period of time, I consider that the most significant was the permanence of the federated union.

The Civil War was an American blood shed. Tens of thousands of soldiers died each day… ALONE! The Civil War started in 1861.The U.S had even amount of slave and free states and then a guy named John Brown “invaded” the South. Abraham Lincoln then got elected president in 1860. Then there was the main moment… the Civil War broke out about slavery in 1861.

The Civil War, beginning in April of 1861 and ending in April of 1865 was one of the most controversial and yet influential battles in American history, but what started it is even more controversial. Leading up to the beginning of the civil war, many southern states began to succeed.. This meant that a lot of them withdrew from the federal union voluntarily. The southern states seceding sparked the beginning of the civil war. As the documents entitled Declaration of Causes of Seceding States, 1861: South Carolina, Senator John C. Calhoun (D-SC) "Slavery a Positive Good" and Senator James Henry Hammond

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose” Lyndon B. Johnson. The civil war, a sad time for Americans, separated the country over slavery and states rights. This led to the deaths of over 600,000 Americans between Union and Confederate soldiers. Out of the eleven confederate states, Texas was one of them. Texans fought in the civil war to defend state’s rights, preserve slaves, and for the love of Texas.

During the Civil War in the 19th century, one problem the war solved was to protect and keep the Union together. The war successfully stopped the South from seceding. That was the main purpose of the war before the question of ending slavery was the main goal of the war. Abraham Lincoln voiced that he did not want war when he was first elected, but when the slave states wanted to secede peacefully, Lincoln didn’t take that lightly. He felt that secession in any form is an exercise of power (Hakim 16).

Since the beginning, the institution of slavery which would keep African Americans chained was bound to cause problematic for America as a whole. The controversy of African Americans were the initial reason that the Civil War even began, and they greatly shaped the course of the war through their efforts fighting for the Union which the government could not deny, they became the main reason for the war, and paved the way to the beginning of African Americans being able to grasp rights along with the hardships socially. In the years right before the Civil War began, there was growing tension between Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery. It snapped shortly after Abraham Lincoln, who openly frowned upon slavery, won the election

A Constitutional issue that plagued early America until the civil war was the enslavement of African Americans. This issue impacted America from 1619 to 1865, with some impacts lasting until today. To address this issue, there were many different efforts made by the federal government, individuals, and groups. Two efforts that stand out are the various Compromises undertaken by the federal government, and the slave rebellions led by enslaved people, such as Nat Turner's rebellion. Ultimately, the enslavement of African Americans was received by the country going to war (Civil war) and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.

The actions that took place due to this event eventually had a compromise that somewhat settled the differences in both the North and South economy’s. It settled with the Civil War and the act of slaves counting as ⅗’s vote and then the new state deciding whether they were a free state or slave

Reactions of the Nat Turner Rebellion turned the North and South against each other, creating more sectionalism that invigorated the North and South. One of the first-ever states that tried to secede was South Carolina due to their refusal to pay the federal tariff; this was called the Nullification Crisis. South Carolina expressed their displeasure at the perceived favoritism of Northern economic interests that came at the expense of Southern economic interests. The Wilmot Proviso was the last act before the direct causes of the Civil War; it was an unsuccessful proposal in the U.S. Congress to ban slavery in the territory acquired from the Mexican War. This led the way to an increased debate over the expansion of slavery in the U.S., which became one of the most dominant issues in American politics in the 1850s.

Perhaps the single most important contribution to the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States was the issue of slavery. Though it cannot be said that slavery was the only cause of the Civil War, it can be said that it played an undeniably imperative role in. The other factors that contributed to the Civil War, particularly the economic and social issues of the time, were often intersected with slavery. Indeed, it seems that slavery so permeated the country at the time that it was difficult to find a political issue that was not connected to it in some way or another. It was thoroughly fixed in the economy of the time before the war—so much so that many believed ending slavery could only be a grave mistake.

From this vantage point, it is relatively safe to say that while the Civil War was sparked by many issues, some of the most important include social, political, and violent actions. Of these issues, the most influential include sectionalism, the Constitutional Convention, and the Harper’s Ferry Raid of 1859. Some might argue that these events are unrelated to the beginning of the war, or that it would have occurred without it, but their value and impact has been repeatedly proved by evidence and logic. They prompted one of the more important wars in American history, a war which would be splashed across its pages and still affects us, over 150 years later. When attempting to comprehend how a nation- a nation that fought together, grew together, and was united in its love of liberty- could become so fractured, an understanding of sectionalism is vital.