The civil war is by far the bloodiest war in American history. In the four deadly years of war, over six-hundred thousand Americans were killed. Many disputes that led to the civil war. These conflicts started under President James Buchanan who was a Democrat elected in the election of 1856. The issue of slavery, states’ rights, the abolitionist movement, the Southern secession, the raid on Harper’s Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln all contributed to the start of the civil war. The civil war and its aftermath transformed the entire nation by unifying the United States, abolishing slavery, and led to the American Industrial Revolution. One of the most controversial crisis at that time was slavery. When the Fugitive Slave Law, was …show more content…
Abraham Lincoln is the first Republican president that announced that he wanted to keep slavery out of the territories but he respected slavery where it had already existed. Several southern states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. The northerners refused to acknowledge the secession because they believed it was illegal and illegitimate. Abraham Lincoln wanted to save the Union in the fastest possible way. He believed as soon as national authority was reestablished, the nation would become the Union it was once before. The main goal was to preserve the unity of the America and whether slavery is saved or destroyed depended if it helps save the Union. Even before the civil war ended, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. Emancipation was not initially a war aim but by the summer of 1862, in order to win support in Europe, the government made abolition an objective. By January of 1863, the Proclamation stated that all slaves in areas of rebellion against the United States, shall then be freed of bondage. Although this was only a start to the political and social transformation in America, it was the start of revolutionizing the social and political status of blacks. Eventually, black males were granted proper social and political rights such as the right to vote and the right to own land (Doc 1, Garraty 398-399). The ultra Radical Republicans
Soldiers of the American Civil War were overwhelmed by a time where weaponry and technological developments were thriving. This brutal war changed the soldiers, both mentally and physically, and continued to have an impact throughout their entire lives. There were not only many deaths during the war, but also prior to the war as many soldiers took their own life. They would experience disturbing thoughts and events in their mind that could not be explained until they became known as mental illnesses. The exploration of psychological disorders following the Civil War improved medical diagnostic tools and the way patients were treated which transformed the treatment of mental illness by creating new ways of discovering illnesses, treating patients, and developing the foundation for the future of psychology throughout America.
A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.
The American Civil War took place from 1861-1865 was an inevitable event in the American history. More than 640,000 people were killed and millions more were injured during this massive war. The civil war was between the northern and the southern states where its most leading cause was slavery. Along with that, economic, political and social ideologies caused the civil war. The northern states, also known as the union, were more successful and antislavery compare to the southern confederates states. The northern states were more populated, had more industries, and believed in the Declaration of Independence statement that “all men are
When the American Civil War began in the spring of 1861, those flocking to enlistment stations in states both north and south chiefly defined their cause as one of preservation. From Maine to Minnesota, young men joined up to preserve the Union. From Virginia to Texas, their future foes on the battlefield enlisted to preserve a social order, a social order at its core built on the institution of slavery and racial superiority . Secession had not been framed by prominent Southerners like Robert Toombs as a defensive measure to retain the fruits of the revolution against King George, a fight against those who sought to “intrique insurrection with all its nameless horrors.” (Toombs Speech) On January 1, 1863, when Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect the war became a revolution. The Union, the soldiers in blue fought to preserve could no longer exist. On every mile of soil, they would return to the Stars and Stripes from that moment on, the fabric of society would be irrevocably changed. In May of 1865, with the abolition of slavery engrained into the Constitution with the passage of the 13th Amendment, the Confederate armies of Lee and Johnston disbanded, and Lincoln dead of an assassin’s bullet; this change was the only certainty the torn fabric of the newly reunited states was left to be resown. Andrew Johnson and Southern Democrats believed the revolution of 1863 had gone far enough. Radical Republicans and African-Americans sought instead to bring it to
The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties, including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease, and 50,000 civilians. The war accounted for roughly as many American deaths as all American deaths in other U.S. wars combined.
During the 1860s there were many issues and that the Southern and Northern states needed to work on. In 1861 hundreds of thousands of Americans volunteered to fight in the Civil War, also known as the First Modern War. The main causes of this war were the economic and social differences between the North and the South. These differences led to other fundamental issues such as slavery and its abolition. In addition to that as the war was coming to its end, federal authorities found themselves presiding over the transition from slavery to freedom.After the war, there was a 12-year period best known as the Reconstruction and the main goals that it had were to get the Confederate States back into the Union, to rebuilt the Southern economy
President Lincoln believed that a person being owned by another person because of their skin color was wrong and despicable. He also wanted the slaves to be free from their owners and join the Union and fight against the Confederates. President Lincoln also wanted to stop the treatment of African Americans as property. Many people in the Union States believed it was wrong to treat slaves differently because of their color. He first used the Proclamation as a threat to make the Confederates surrender but when they refused he issued the Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Lincoln became very committed to making it happen. He believed that it was a necessity to show justice. His cabinet also wanted to wait until a Union victory so they would have no problem enforcing the
In the 1800s the Civil War, a war between the northern and southern states, erupted into a massive conflict after President Lincoln was elected and after eleven states seceded from the Union. Following the secession from the Union, The Ft. Sumer conflict erupted, and this four-year tragedy between the northern and southern United States began causing an innumerable amount of casualties. This immense number of casualties, reaching approximately 600,000, resulted from economic and social differences of the North and South, the Dred Scott Case, and the election of President Abraham Lincoln. These causes of the Civil War were all created on conflict rather than intervention. They led to the creation of the Confederacy, a league of confederate states that embodied various disadvantages: the creation of weapons manually, the lack of railroads, the small population, as well as various advantages: tough fighting, devastating the Union 's army and unity that brought people of the Southern states together. Alongside these advantages came devastation, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves, and led to the Confederacy 's defeat in 1865.
As the early nineteenth century unfolded hostility to slavery surfaced on the national scene. The United States began to split because of views of the people became concreate causing the bitter disputes between the North and South to be more drastic due to economic issues of slavery and morals. The Constitution contributed in the separation that was occurring. For example the Compromise of 1850, was drafted by Henry Clay in an attempt to gloss over the confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the territory with slavery. Another example of a Supreme Court decision that is known as the Dred Scott Decision of 1857 declared that African Americans had no rights of citizenship hence slaves who escaped to free states were not free but still the property of their owners and would need to be returned. The decision of the United States to determine that once a person was a slave they could never become a citizen. This case instilled fear to anti-slavery groups that slavery would spread and it infuriated anti-slavery leaders causing the new Republican Party.
president after Lincoln 's death and immediately set the tone for the rest of his
It is quite obvious that there were many goals to achieve during the Civil War. But discovering the true meaning and vision of the Civil War is the concept that is still researched today by the people of America. In the prologue of Blight’s Race and Reunion he states: (Three overall visions of the Civil War memory collided and combined over time: one, the reconciliationist vision … two, the white supremacist vision … and three, the emancipationist vision…) All three of these visions are extremely important, however, I mainly want to stress the importance of the white supremacist vision and the emancipationist vision. An obvious form of the change for the meaning of the Civil War through the period of Reconstruction is through the eyes of emancipationists. Emancipationist’s visions are mainly seen through African American’s eyes as they remember their freedom through the Civil War and Reconstruction. They see the Civil War as a new construction for the liberation of blacks through citizenship and Constitutional equality. It seems quite obvious that the Blacks did indeed earn more rights as Reconstruction progressed but, there were disagreements of the rights for Blacks. The white supremacist vision did not want the Civil War to be seen as a war fought for the freedom of Blacks and Blacks rights. They wanted the Civil War to be envisioned as a defense of Southern rights as their “property” (slaves) was soon to be taken. Both of these ideas and interpretations still live on in
On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, issued the first, or preliminary, Emancipation Proclamation. In this document he warned that unless the states of the Confederacy returned to the Union by January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves to be “forever free.” During the Civil War, he was fighting to save the Union and trying not to free the slaves. Lincoln was quoted to say, “I am not, nor have ever been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” The Emancipation Proclamation illustrated this view.
The Civil War between the North and the South in America was not even a half year old when well-known Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote his article “Bread and the Newspaper” in prestigious Boston The Atlantic Monthly magazine, which he helped to found. He wrote in the magazine that war to preserve the union will bring the various citizens of the country together and needs to be fought on three fronts, one is the law, one is in the mind of the people and one requires the spilling of blood, all in the tradition of the Revolutionary War.
Many Texans contend that the Civil War was not fought over slavery, citing the limited number of slave-owning households in the state. While the majority of Texans did not own slaves, it would be inaccurate to argue that they were therefore against slavery. Texas, representative of other southern states that supported slavery, had a vested interest in preserving the institution at all costs, which is why they risked their lives over it. Moreover, Texans may argue that the civil war was about states’ rights or defense of the southern “way of life.” States’ rights, though part of the equation, played a diminished role as a whole in prompting the Civil War. Furthermore, because it revolved mostly around slavery, the southern “way of life”
In 1861, a horrific war began. Nobody had any idea that this war would become the deadliest war in American history. It wasn’t a regular war, it was a civil war opposing the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South.. The Civil War cost many people’s lives on the battlefield and beyond. In addition it cost an extreme amount of money for the nation which possibly could have been avoided if the war had turned to happen a little differently.