Events Leading up to the American Civil War
Introduction
Every story has, ironically, a story of how it came to be, and the Civil War is no exception. Slathered in the blood of a total of 1,264,000 deaths total, and a nation destroying itself. One knows that there must be a quite riveting prologue to this war. The crux of the problem was the issue over slavery. The North were opposed to slavery while the South was all for it. This caused great tension between the two areas of the nation. Eventually, as one may know, this led to the Civil War. The string of events increasing the tension to the point of this war is crucial to our understanding of just why soldiers in the Civil War were so motivated. Also, these events are crucial as to why the North and South hold such a grudge against each other. It begins as small squabbles, but frustration between the North and South passes well beyond its breaking point. From the Missouri Compromise to the Gag Rule to the Kansas Nebraska act, the actions in the Civil War are all caused by these aforementioned parts of history and more. This statement creates a loop in the reasoning, but it is justified as they both support each other. The events that came before the Civil War are vital to understanding the war, so that is exactly the information one shall find to be distributed throughout the article.
The Cotton Gin
In the growth of the Industrial Revolution, an inventor name Eli Whitney wanted to lessen the work on slaves by creating the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin was a machine that "used rotating combs to separate cotton fiber from it seeds." It was known that the cotton gin could clean as much cotton as 50 slaves working by hand. As time progressed, the growth of cotton in the South increased. In thought that the cotton gin would lessen the work for slaves, it made slavery more important in the South. Between the years of 1790 and 1850 the number of the slaves in the South increased from five- hundred thousand to three million. This event lead up to the Civil War because with the growth of cotton sales, the South needed slaves. If the government abolished slavery then that would ruin business for white southerners.
Missouri Compromise
As one could tell if one has knowledge of early America, there was always an equilibrium of slave and Free states, to prevent slavery from taking over or being eradicated entirely. Missouri was, at the time, applying for statehood, but as a slave state. The Union had found themselves between a rock and a hard place. If they chose to make Missouri a slave state, the south would have more power in the Union, and vice versa for the North. In the congressional battle over Missouri between Northern and Southern members, Maine applied for statehood as a free state, and was the unsung hero in this dilemma. The Missouri Compromise ended up in this way: Missouri was a slave state, Maine was a free state, and no slave state shall pass the new "Missouri Compromise Line," which was a line at 36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude. Unfortunately, the pattern of disequilibrium proceeds.
Wilmot Proviso
Later, in the year of 1846, a new bill came to light despite the now-in-effect gag rule that is known as the Wilmot Proviso. The Wilmot Proviso was the statement that "'neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist' in any part of the territory that might be acquired from Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War. As one would expect, the South disliked the Wilmot Proviso more than that which should be described as "strongly". The Proviso passed through the House of Representatives, but was cut off from its potential when it reached the Senate. This was not the imbalance that one would think to be aforementioned in the first paragraph as it was not technically an imbalance of power due to the fact that nothing had changed, and one would be right, as the imbalance, in reality, is revealed in the next paragraph.
Kansas- Nebraska Act
This issue was caused by a manipulative man by the name of Stephen Douglas, and he brought about what he wanted in an expertly crafted setup. Douglas wanted a new railroad, but not the same almost-dilapidated-run-of-the-mill railroad, he wanted a railroad that would cross the entire country. Douglas could not achieve his goals though without the statehood and labor only the people could provide, so he wrapped up his true plans in a competition. Douglas passed the Kansas Nebraska Act, which stated that there were to be two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska. These states also neutralized the Missouri Compromise by allowing the people of the territory to choose whether or not they would be a slave state or a Free State. The pro slavery settlers have yet another win, and this wouldn’t be the last one.
The Dred Scott Decision
The real tipping point of Northern frustration was based on a case which resulted in what is known as the Dred Scott Decision. Dred Scott was a slave whose owner had briefly traveled north into the Free States with Scott in tow. Upon his return, Dred Scott filed a case for his freedom to a court. Scott's reasoning was that since he was inside of a Free State recently, and there are no slaves in a Free State, he should be free since he simply cannot be a slave anymore. This went all the way up to the Supreme Court, where the Supreme Justices would decide the verdict. Roger Taney, an 80 year old supreme justice was opposed to slavery for quite some bit of time, even going as far to say that "...every lover of freedom hopes that it (slavery) will be... wiped away." This made the words uttered by the supreme justice even more infuriating as the court had decided, by a vote of 4 to 3, that Scott could not be a freed man, with Taney against Scott. Taney's reasoning for this choice was the actual point where the North blew proverbial steam out of their ears. Taney said that all slaves are property and therefore cannot be ever free no matter what, abolishing the Missouri Compromise also due to it being "unconstitutional." After that, tensions grew in more physical ways, as you may notice in the next paragraphs up to the end.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Bibliographyn.d.
Hart, Diane. History Alive! The United States Through Industrialism. Palo Alto: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2011. paper.
Hart, Diane. History Alive! The United States Through Industrialism. Palo Alto: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2011. paper.