American Civil War

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

2006

The year is 1861 and the War Between the States is raging . As McPherson (1996 ) illustrated , North and South are at arms fighting in the beautiful golden hills and green valleys once played in of a child Brothers are fighting against brothers , fathers against sons , and neighbors against neighbors . The name Civil War is misleading because the war was not a class struggle , but a sectional combat having its roots in political , economic , social , and psychological elements so complex that historians still do not agree on its basic

causes (McPherson , 1996 . It has been characterized , in the words of William H Seward , as the irrepressible conflict ' In another judgment the Civil War was viewed as criminally stupid , an unnecessary bloodletting brought on by arrogant extremists and blundering politicians . Both views accept the fact that in 1861 a situation existed , that , rightly or wrongly , had come to be regarded as insoluble by peaceful means

The Civil War was caused by a myriad of conflicting pressures principles , and prejudices , fueled by sectional differences and pride and set into motion by a most unlikely set of political events . At the root of all of the problems was the institution of slavery , which had been introduced into North America in early colonial times . The American Revolution had been fought to validate the idea that all men were created equal , yet slavery was legal in all of the thirteen colonies throughout the revolutionary period . Although it was largely gone from the northern states by 1787 , it was still enshrined in the new Constitution of the United States , not only at the behest of the Southern ones , but also with the approval of many of the Northern delegates who saw that there was still much money to be made in the slave trade by the Yankee shipping industry . While some in the North hated slavery because they felt that it was wrong , most people held no opinion of it at all , and some even condoned it because abolishing it would be bad for business . Without slaves there would be no cotton Without cotton the textile industry would suffer . To many it was just that simple (McPherson , 1996 . Eventually its existence came to color every aspect of American life . The American Civil War was also a sectional conflict in the United States between the federal government (the Union ) and 11 Southern slave states that declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America . The Confederate favored slavery , felt they were fighting a second war of independence made living from small farms and plantations , wanted to lower taxes on goods and believed in states ' rights . The Union ' opposed expansion of slavery , rejected any right of secession felt they were fighting a war to free slaves , made living from factories and trade , wanted to higher taxes on Europeans goods so Southerners would buy Northern products believed that the Union must be saved above all else . In the days of the American Revolution and of...