Of The Southern States example essay topic

In this chapter I will try to find out why the Civil War actually started, and what the consequences of the war were. To find out this I need to know a little more about the history of the Civil War. The causes of most wars are often very complex, but in the America civil war it came down to two major issues, slavery and the protection of the Union. In the North, they were growing richer all the time as industry developed fast. The workers were mostly immigrants with low wages. The South didn't have these resources, and the slaves were essential for them.

The Northern politicians insisted that the Slavery should be abolished and that this was an evil system that should be stamped out. Only the rich wool farmers and other wealthy southerners had their own slaves, but most of them thought each state should decide its own politics rather than the federal government in Washington. When the war started most southerners fought for their States' right and not just the slavery question. The North primarily fought to preserve the Union, but soon they also wanted to free all the slaves in the South.

In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as President, he was liberally-minded, and this was the final straw for the southern states. The leaders of the south had been waiting a long time for an event like this that could unite the entire South against the "antislavery forces". When the election results were certain a South Carolina convention declared their state as seceded from the United States of America. Six more states seceded by February 1861 and the seven states made their own state called the Confederate States of America and established a capital in Montgomery, Alabama.

The rest of the southern states were still a part of the Union. On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. In his inaugural speech, he declared that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and that this was a binding contract. He said he didn't have any plans to invade the southern states, but that he would use force to maintain possession of federal property.

His ended his speech with a plea for the restoration of the bonds of union. The South just ignored his plea. Violence and outrage turned to belligerence in the North, which in turn had many southerners clamouring for war. At 4.30 am on April 12th 1861, Confederate gunners opened fire on Federal - held Fort Sumter, situated in the middle of Charleston Harbour. The only real casualty was a horse. This gentle brawl was the start of a longer, harder and bloodier war than anyone could dream of.

After this incident Lincoln declared that all of the remaining states in the Union should send their troops to recapture the forts that the Southerners had taken. Most Northerners thought their troops were supreme and they thought that a quick and brutal victory would stop the rebellion. Because of this Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days. This made four more states secede, one of them was the conceited state Virgina, and once they seceded the capital was moved from Alabama to Richmond, Virginia. Even if many of the Southern states now had seceded there was still a considerable anti-secessionist movement inn many of the states.