Blog #43 – Was the Civil War Inevitable?
It’s easy to look back from the vantage point of 150 years ago and say that the Civil War was inevitable. That there was no denying that a clash over slavery would eventually occur, that the compromises would only last so long or work so well until something else came up to shatter the delicate balance that the Northern and Southern states tried to perpetuate.
And looking back over the past ten to 15 years before the war began, events like the Wilmot Proviso, the Mexican War, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the new Fugitive Slave Law, Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry all take on additional significance because with the aid of time, historians can look back and see which events were more pivotal and which ones weren’t.
And the last year before the war, 1860, so many things had to click into place for the war to happen. What if Lincoln wasn’t nominated or hadn’t won? What if there was only John Bell or Stephen Douglas to win votes in the South instead of splitting up those Union votes? Could the election have gone to the House of Representatives if there had been only three candidates?
Other questions abound when I think of the last year before the war? What if the Charleston Mercury editorial hadn’t been printed? What if President Buchanan had been stronger in resisting the secession of the first seven states? He tried to resupply Fort Sumter in January 1861 but the ship was fired upon and returned to Washington w/o resupplying Major Robert Anderson and his men at the South Carolina fort. Did Buchanan think he had the power to stop the states from seceding? Or was he just leaving the job to Abe Lincoln?
Did the Southern states actually have to leave or could they have done something else beginning in December 1860? They must have felt that working within the system of the established Constitution was not working even though that document guarantees slavery. The election of Lincoln had additional significance for these Deep South states b/c not all slave states left the Union right away (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware stayed, and North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee left ONLY after Lincoln called for troops when Fort Sumter was bombed). Were these Deep South states trying to resist Lincoln or were the resisting his party’s anti-slavery platform? He was the first president elected since JQ Adams in 1824 that was avowedly not a Southerner or a Northerner soft of slavery, so he must have been perceived as some kind of threat.
I know there are a lot of questions here that I’ve raised, and that’s b/c I wanted you to think about the inevitability of this whole stream of events that led to the bombing of Fort Sumter. Please answer the following two questions:
1. Was there ONE thing in the time period (1846-1861) that you think impacted the start of the war more than any other event or thing? Why?
2. Which event or action in the last 16 months (1860 – 61) had the greatest impact? Why? Did this event make the Civil War inevitable or not? Why?
Due Tuesday, Dec. 4 by class time. 250 words minimum.
1. I think that the Kansas Nebraska act was one event that impacted the start of the war more than anything else. Though of course the Kansas Nebraska act alone never could have started the war, it did have a very significant impact. The act effectively overrode the Missouri compromise, because it put the issue of whether Kansas would be a free or slave state up to popular sovereignty, instead of making it a free state, as it would have been made had the Missouri compromise still been effective. This act was put in place by a democrat. The Republican party rose up as a reaction to this act. This is why I think that this act was so significant: it created the Republican Party, which set up two clear parties. The Republican party would eventually nominate Abraham Lincoln as president, which was another important event to the start of the war.
2. When South Carolina seceded, I think that that is when war was really inevitable. Had they not seceded first, it is questionable whether or not the other Southern states would have ever seceded; they set off the spark that ignited the bonfire. It set the tone for what was going to happen next in regards to the battle over slavery. Had they not seceded, as was mentioned, the other states probably wouldn’t have seceded either, and it’s possible that the slavery issue wouldn’t have escalated into a war, but possibly it would have been more peacefully (though of course most likely not entirely peacefully) resolved. In a way, by seceding South Carolina turned the argument into a full blown war by creating an opposing force, when before, there was really no well-established opposition to the union.
1. Was there ONE thing in the time period (1846-1861) that you think impacted the start of the war more than any other event or thing? Why?
I think that there was one thing during 1846-1861 that impacted the start of the war more than any other event and it was when South Carolina had decided to succeed from the union because it started a domino effect. Starting with other states not succeeding, which ultimately means that the federal troops wouldn’t have had to go to Fort Sumter, resulting in no bombing. South Carolina started a rebellion which ultimately started the war.
2. Which event or action in the last 16 months (1860 – 61) had the greatest impact? Why? Did this event make the Civil War inevitable or not? Why? The event/action in the last 16 months had the greatest impact was, in my opinion, the bombing of Fort Sumter because it showed that the South wasn’t going to back down and they’d stand there ground. Because of this, they began to bomb the Fort, forcing the Union to take action against the bombing. Although, the South still had a chance to redeem themselves without any shooting. Lincoln had given the South the chance to retreat from the war while refusing to supply the fort with weapon, troops and sending food and things that they needed to live. The South didn’t want to do that so they decided to shoot the fort. The war was inevitable because there was no way for the Union to attack without causing war.
I do not think the Civl War was inevitable. They could have stayed with the slave and free states for a much longer time without pursuing to war. Slavery is the main reason they fought, but it all started before that. With things such as the Uncle Toms cabin. This story made people in the north able to understand slavery more than ever. Also the fugitive slave act which angered a lot of people because it said that if slaves were freed they needed to be returned to owners. The northerns did not believe in this. If you got free then you should stay free. These are a few things that pushed the north to fight. For the south they needed the slaves for their work and they’re way of life greatly depended on them. Also the attack on Harpers Ferry
made the southerns scared and angry because they didn’t want their slaves turning against them.
The confederates don’t want to listen to president Lincoln anymore and believed he did not have power. Since all these states had left the Union they felt whatever Lincoln sad was irrelevant. So at Fort Sumter when Lincoln said to allow a ship to resupply the fort, the confederates in Charleston refused because they didn’t want to follow his authority. Instead they started to attack the Fort until it surrendered. It was a great victory for Charleston. Even though the soldiers were allowed to sail away, this began the start of this great war. Lincoln couldn’t let Charleston and the south have more authority than the federal government. And so the war began.
1. If there was one event that set America down the path to inevitable Civil War, it was John Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry. This event was a white man, John Brown, and several others including two of his sons, attacked a small town loaded with guns and other weaponry. They were trying to start a slave rebellion by luring slaves to take the weapons and go out and kill their masters. Unfortunately, no slaves came and John brown and gang were attacked by a small militia led by Robert E. Lee. John Brown was tried and sentenced to death for treason. Abolitionists and other sympathetic northerners believed John brown to be a martyr while slave owners thought of him as a radical extremist. This issue split the nation even farther and it made the south keep on edge in case of another attack. Southerners also worried about northerners agitating slaves.
2. By the 16 months before the Civil War started, it was already inevitable. It was just waiting for the spark that would start the fire of war. I believe that the secession of South Carolina is what had the greatest impact. South Carolina’s secession sparked the deep south to secede and other more northern states to secede as well. If South Carolina didn’t secede, it would’ve been on e of the other deep south states.
The secession of the south put Abe Lincoln in a tight spot. With Civil War looming on his shoulders, he had to find a way to bring the Union back together and also keep the peace or just not start the war. Fort Sumter had to be resupplied but if he resupplied it with troops, the Confederacy would see this as an act of war and attack the fort. So he tried to supply the fort with just food and medical supplies. The South still attacked it on
April 12, 1861 and the war had begun.
The Civil War was completely inevitable because of the fierce dispute over slavery that was rooted when the first slave was brought to the Americas. Because slavery, and all the complaints, issues, and brutalities that came with it, existed chronically throughout the entire establishment of America, there was no way to completely dissolve the problem without a huge uproar of bloodshed and war. You can’t get rid of deep-rooted splinter by putting a band-aid over it; you have to cut deep into the flesh and dig it out, regardless of the pain and trouble that may come along with it. Other than slavery being an ingrained concern for America, one thing that definitely impacted the start of the war was John Brown’s attack. Southerners viewed Brown’s radical aggression as proof that abolitionists and even all anti-slavery advocators should be stopped, before their crazy actions turned truly dangerous to the entire nation. I think the attack of Harper’s Ferry gave the Southerners to fight back. It gave them the excuse of his heretic fight, and the assumption that all northerners were just as crazy, to blame all further issues on.
However, the event that really set off the war was the Bombing of Fort Sumpter. Although I don’t think slavery could have been actually abolished without at least a drop of bloodshed, the bombardment by Confederates really put the war in motion. It was an act with no precedent or excuse, which is part of the reason it angered so many people of the Union, causing them to make drastic decisions about fighting back. The attack was a weak one; and was planned probably just so Confederates could show that they were planning to bully their way into a war. Declaring war was almost an act of defense for the Union, made in order to stand up for themselves after the attack on Fort Sumpter.
1. I think that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was one of the most significant events to cause the Civil War. This enraged the Northerners because they knew that it would be abused. It stated that any “runaway slave” found would be brought back before a judge and can be returned to the owner. However people abused this and captured free black men as well as runaway slaves. And because blacks didn’t have any paperwork, people could just write that they owned the person and the judge most likely would rule in favor of the slave holder. This caused a huge conflict because the South wanted the North to comply with this act but most were resistant. This lead to the Civil War.
2. The election of Abraham Lincoln had the greatest impact in the last 16 months before the war. He was a threat to slavery so big that the south couldn’t take it.The first thing that went wrong after his election was the secession of South Carolina. They had vowed that if Lincoln was elected they would secede and they surely did. After SC, six other states also seceded within six weeks. They formed what is known as the Confederate States of America, which basically guaranteed a civil war and made it inevitable. With the new tension between the now 2 nations was immense. There is bound to be a conflict when a nation splits and that’s exactly what happened: The Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in American History.
1. There were many different causes to the civil war, but the disagreement on the controversial topic of slavery really fired people up. When new states started to enter the Union, this caused many issues. Many of those issues had to do with slavery. For example, before states like California, New Mexico, and Utah wanted to enter the Union, there was an even balance between slave states and non-slave states. There were exactly 15 free states and 15 slave states. But with new states wanting to enter it would mess up the balance of things! These elements just intensified the tension between the south and the north. Because of course the South wanted more states as slave states, and the North wanted more states as free states. So, I believe that slavery and new states wanting to join the Union were major causing factors for leading up to the civil war.
2. The biggest event within the 16 months leading up to the civil war was definitely the bombing of Fort Sumter. The bombing of the fort was the South declaring war, there was no ignoring this. The Union was forced to respond. Lincoln however tried to persuade the South to retreat from the war by only sending the fort food and other necessities. However, the south continued to fire on the fort, leaving the Union no choice but to fight back. If the Union did not fight back then they would just be weak, and an easy target for the South to strike again. So, the Civil war began.
The reason why the southern states had held on to slavery for as long as they did was because the North wasn’t united on the slavery front. There were some northern abolitionists who wanted to see the end of slavery. But there were also the businessman who profited off of the booming cotton trade. The majority of the common man still held racist beliefs and were indifferent on slavery. I think what changed the tide of slavery expansion and occupation was the publishing of the anti-slavery book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which projected slavery as morally wrong. I think this was a changing point in common northerner’s view. If the southern states succeeded maybe 5 years before the publishing of Stowe’s book, there might not have been the animosity to fighting the south and the Confederacy might still exist today.
The most important action in the last 16 months before the bombardment of Fort Sumter was President Buchanan’s lack of decision during the secession of the deep south states. Buchanan knew that secession was illegal, but he didn’t know what were his powers to stop it. So instead of doing something, he simply did nothing. It was true that he might not of had a substantial army yet to fight the southern militias, but if he led troops to Charleston, SC like George Washington did during the Whiskey Rebellion and showed his force as president, southern states might have reconsidered their actions. What might have influenced Buchanan not to lead a military march on the south was that he was surrounded by many southern advisors who convinced him otherwise. To me, I don’t understand that even if he said to be a unionist, he’s actions clearly reflect someone who was pro “states rights”.
1. One huge event that led to the inevitable civil war, in my opinion, was John Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry. The attack was led by a white man named John Brown who wanted to gather slaves for a rebellion and retrieve weapons. The plan was to give these slaves weapons and have them go out on a rampage. The main goal was to kill their owners. The rebellion never took its way and John Brown was sentenced to death after being brought down by Robert E. Lee and his militia. This fiasco really tore the nation into two different sides. The northern people thought of the attempted rebellion as a good thing, as the southerners looking at it as an awful thing. It made southerners paranoid that another attack was coming and that the North could take side with their slaves and rebel against them.
2. In the last sixteen months, the civil war was inevitable. The break off of South Carolina had a huge impact on this. The secession of South Carolina put the idea into the eyes of the other states. It started the secession of the South and also some of the northern states. If this event never happened, South Carolina would have simply just been another slave state in the South, and the secession of the South would have never happened. When the South seceded, it was like an explosion waiting to happen. With the Civil War already on his mind, Abe Lincoln had to find a way to keep peace and prevent a war from breaking out. He also had to resupply Fort Sumter without alarming the Confederacy so that they did not see it as a act of war and put an attack on them. The tactic he used was to supply the fort with just food and medical supplies but eventually war broke out. The attack took place on April 12, 1861. This was a huge catalyst to the beginning of the war.
1. The one thing from the period around the civil war that I believe is the most important or key to the ignition of the civil war was the Wilmot proviso. I think that the Wilmot proviso is the most important because of the fact that this was one of the sole purposes why there was an escalation in tension between the North and the South. The Wilmot proviso set essentially a spark for a chain of events that would inevitably collapse the bond between the North and The south. I specifically chose this one over the other events as this was the root cause or primary action that escalated tensions and eventually LEAD to the other events or actions. The Wilmot proviso was obviously in favor of a more partial opinion as this action favored northern thinkers and settlers while enraged pro-slavery advocates and southerners. The Wilmot proviso is the sole most important action between these time periods for the reason that it was the primary action that ignited the fuel behind the fight.
2. The event in the last 16 months that had the greatest impact with regards to the civil war was no doubt the succession of South Carolina. The succession of South Carolina had the greatest impact and future implications. The upcoming events were all because of this one ordeal. The succession of South Carolina created a domino effect turning the south against the north in what would be the bloodiest war in American History. But the question is why fight ourselves? The idea of unity was lost in the nation as morals, ethics, and regional opinions had formed around the foundation of politics and government at that time. The south wanted to only keep slavery because of the economic profit and stability a slave owner gets from his slave. All other reasons in my mind are not true and should be rejected as bias attempts to lessen the true history and status of slavery. Also the succession of SC had the greatest impact because of its additional implications and effects in the future and also because of how this DIRECTLY sparked the war, and how it’s not gonna be pretty when all of this is said and done. The succession of S.C proves that at this point in time the civil war was inevitable because the boneheads of the south who thought about their own personal economic prosperity before they evaluate the way their “Christian” selves treat other human beings is completely ridiculous. The south wasn’t going to change its morals and mind about slavery unless something was asserted. And the south couldn’t take being within the eye and skepticism by the union and…. They left. This single event shows how dysfunctional and how chaotic this time would get because of how it only takes ONE “match” to set the whole pool of “Gasoline” on fire….. And for the sake of the analogy the North are the Firefighters that extinguish this fire and clean it up after a LONG and tragic battle-Royall.
1. If there’s one thing during the time period from 1846-1861 that impacted the start of the war most, it was John Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry. John Brown, an antislavery crusader, seized a federal arsenal on Harper’s Ferry. He then hoped to convince black slaves to rebel against their masters with the guns from Harper’s Ferry. But despite his certainty, no slave showed up to join him. John Brown was surrounded by Robert E Lee and was later tried and hung. Many northerners saw him as hero who died honorably. However the south of course saw him as a crazy abolitionist and couldn’t have been happier the day he was sentenced to death. This was a huge wake up call for the north and south, because it was the first time the nation realized how divided it really was. A white man was just willing to cause violence and die in order to free black slaves. Southerners became increasingly worried about what the north might pull next.
2. By the beginning of the last 16 months the war was clearly inevitable. It was physically impossible for our nation to be divided by slavery without having two separate governments. All that was left to start it was a straw to break the camel’s back. I think that this was Lincoln’s inauguration in 1860. When this happened the south realized how powerful the north had become and was terrified of being controlled by something so evil, as they saw it. When South Carolina was the first to secede, it didn’t take too long after for the rest of the south to follow and form a new constitution. Right before the war started Lincoln realized that he needed to resupply Fort Sumter with food and other supplies, but the south saw this as a threat and attacked it. Although this is the real violent start of the Civil War, I believe that without Lincoln’s election the South wouldn’t have seceded and the war wouldn’t have started.
There are so many things that happened previous to the Civil War that it is impossible to think that war was the only way it could turn out. Not only including the posed questions, there are so many ‘what if’s that could range from a narrower sense—what if Dred Scott just stayed silent; what if the North or the South held onto their pride for a little longer—or a broader sense—what if European powers neglected to settle on America until hundreds of years later, erasing all history of Revolution, modern inventions, and internationalism? What if Augustus had died from a disease in his youth? Inevitable would have to include all of those universes, too.
Of course, in a narrower sense, we can assume history is set until 1846. In these terms, I don’t think any one event changed the course of the war any more than another. In the Mexican War, the Fugitive Slave Law, and John Brown’s raid, these things were only the compounding of a hatred so deep that neither side would confront it for centuries. People had always, even to some small degree, been concerned about the morality of slavery despite its convenience after Bacon’s Rebellion in 1675. As the use of slaves grew, so did the frustrations between those who found it useful and those who found it horrifying—namely, the North and the South. The final events leading up to the war were, in their own way, predictable. Even if they had not happened in exactly that time or place, the differences between the two groups could not be settled with compromise. In some way, there had to be a clear winner and a clear loser.
However, if there was an event in the year or so precluding the war that had the greatest impact on the war, it would be Lincoln’s election. He was voted into office with less than a majority popular vote, and wasn’t even known in some states, because he wasn’t placed on the ballots. Democrats didn’t want a Republican in office, and the South decided they finally wanted to rule themselves. This led to their seceding from the country and the moment of the war’s start when the first weapon was fired on Fort Sumter.
Up to a certain point, the Civil War was avoidable, but not one specific action caused the war. I believe, the first big step towards war was during the Industrial Revolution. Slave labor was dying off and people thought we would eventually move away from it. However, after the invention of the Cotton Gin, slave labor once again grabbed on by the roots, securing itself in the haven of states’ rights. And so, slavery slipped into the backs of peoples minds where it lay, unwelcome to many, and slavery stayed there until the Wilmot Proviso, where it was brought front and center. By this time, everyone in the North and South had already chosen their sides, leading to the greater divided between North and South. Then, Abraham Lincoln is elected President, and even though he says many times he will not mess with slavery where it already is, southerners are still worried. Lincoln’s election, is the most important event immediately before the Civil War because, if a Democrat had won, the South might not have seceded. Instead, South Carolina secedes in 1861, bringing six other Southern states with it. Maybe we could have avoided war if, at this point, we had made serious negotiations with the southern states, but if we did, we might still have slavery. In other words, if the North was going to keep the South without either side giving up on its values, there was going to be a war.
1.The one thing that impacted the civil war more than any other thing would be the new states wanting to join the union. All of the compromises that were being made just piled up into more problems beng created. We had a lot of territory left over after the Mexican war and we didn’t know what to do with it. It was hard deciding whether or not to make them slave states or free states. The Wilmot Proviso tried to compromise this argument but the outcome still angered the south.It made them contemplate on whether to start seceding or not. The Kansas Nebraska act was also a major dispute during this era. They could choose of they wanted to be slave states or free states. This brought up another argument between the north and the south. After they both decided to be free, the south was angered even more. This continuing argument over slave states and free states pushed our country towards the civil war and the south toward secession.
2. When South Carolina seceded, the war truly became inevitable. If they did not secede first, the other southern states might have not even questioned the idea of seceding. Also, the slavery issue might have not led to the war if they had not seceded. They deciding to seceded was the explosion that started all te fighting. It also could have been more peacefully resolved if they had not seceded. South Carolina had turned the argument into an all out brawl between both sides. If they had not seceded, the fighting wouldn’t have been so severe, and the issues may have been solved more peacefully.
A lot of things can happen in 15 years. In 15 years, a man who places one domino every year can set up 15 dominos. Conversely, a man who takes down a domino every year, can take down 15 dominos. Life is like dominos. Each event or person is represented as a single domino. When one gets knocked over, the other dominos will fall also. This is an analogy for how we are all connected in a way, and when a event occurs, it sets off other events, and can affect almost everyone associated with it. Why is this important, you may ask. An event(s) will always have a greater impact on history than the others, a cardinal domino if you will. The source domino, the cause of it all, call it what you will, but that event will embed itself in history forever.
How can you be certain that one event can generally have an affect over the populous? Can one single occurrence cause a war of aggression? I believe so, even though people may not know it, they are all connected in one way or another. This “network” of familiarity links us to others and can even influence us. I am of course referring to the Six Degrees of Separation. It is the concept that everyone in the world is connected by six or fewer connections. The idea basically states that you and someone across the globe are six or less steps away from each other through a network of friends of friends or friends, etc. I believe that not only is this quite possible, but also one may be influenced through it too. My theory is that an idea, event, or person may continue to have influence over others through the six degrees even through great distances or death. This may seem very crazy (and unnecessary), but in the end, it all makes sense. The Six Degrees of Separation can be used to prove (however loosely) that Martin Luther influenced colonization of the New World.
First, Martin Luther was one of the main figures in the Protestant Reformation. Opposition to the Church’s teachings were not uncommon, but something that stood out about this one was that Luther was not killed. Second, some years later a man by the name of John Calvin read the works of Luther and was inspired to voice his own views and beliefs, that and the fact that he was not assassinated by the Church. Third, another man was a fan of Calvin, and he went by the name of King Henry VII, who was notable for the creation of the Anglican Church, more or less. Fourth, many Puritans sought to reform or separate from the Anglican Church. Fifth, a sub-division of the Puritans was a group of like-minded people known as Separatists. Sixth, a group a Separatists boarded a ship and sailed for the New World, they were known as the Pilgrims. This proves (more or less), that the six degrees of separation not only can connect people, but ideas, and can influence decisions.
Now applying this concept to the time period of 1846-1861, there even though many things have happened, there must have been one event that ultimately influenced or caused the War of Northern Aggression. We can trace back events that we caused by earlier events as to deem them as not as important for the only reason they happened was due to the source event. These include the Wilmot Proviso, which did anger many, could not have happened unless the Mexican War was initiated. In my opinion, the event that was most influential was the Raid on Harper’s Ferry. John Brown’s assault not only added to the turmoil of the feuding factions, but it also scared the southerners immensely. The raid concerned southerners because it meant that abolitionists, no matter how few, were beginning to take radical action against slavery. Such violent acts convinced the south to develop an army to stop these from occurring, and eventually, fight back.
The event that had the greatest impact in the last 16 months leading up to the Civil War was the election of our president, Abraham Lincoln,. To the southerners, Lincoln’s admission to the oval office was the last straw. It was the final event that set off the war. After this, the south could take no more, and it ended the south’s tolerance of the north’s aggression. This country was built on compromises, and the south could not tolerate any more compromises, to this event locked in the bloodiest war yet in American history.
I don’t believe that any one event set of the start of the Civil War. None of the events alone could have started it. The chain of events leading up to the start of the war all had an effect on the occurrence of the war. With each event the strain became stronger and stronger before it was finally stretched to its breaking point. For the war to break out, there needed to be hatred on both sides to fight. It seems as though for every event that rallied the South, there would occur an event that rallied the North. Eventually the people’s anger boiled over. The Civil War was bound to happen, yet no single event tipped it.
Within the last 16 months before the war, I think that Lincoln being elected president had the greatest impact. Lincoln’s views showed that he wanted to stop the spread of slavery which agitated the Southerners who wanted it to spread. Also, being anti-slavery, he had a different view of and reaction to certain events than others would have. Who was elected president might have actually stalled the war. For instance, if a pro-slavery president was elected the southern states might feel more protected and come back to the Union/ not secede. The actions of our president defined the start of the Civil War. The war was inevitable no matter if Lincoln was elected. There were too many other factors to take into account to say that one event is why the war is inevitable. War is caused by many things and the tensions between the North and the South that already existed were a clear sign that war was on the horizon.
1. I think that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the event that had the most impact on the start of the Civil War. There were important events that led to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, but none made a huge impact on the start of the Civil War quite like this Act did. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was revolved around the question– Will Kansas be a free or slave state? This question would be answered by popular sovereignty instead of automatically becoming a free state like it normally would because the Missouri Compromise was no longer effective at this time. Kansas becoming a slave state angered the Abolitionists (mostly Northerners), and ended up developing a new party, the Republican Party. The Kansas-Nebraska act is so influential to the civil war, because of its significance in starting this new political party.
2. In my opinion the bombing of Fort Sumter was the official start of the Civil War. This sort of shocked the Union and gave them a heads up that the Confederates were ready to fight them. Before the bombing of Fort Sumter, many citizens predicted or believed that Fort Sumter would play a major role in a possible war. They knew that if the Fort was bombed war would start, but if Fort Sumter was left untouched there was a possibility of not having the war. The Union tried to remain calm and peaceful by only sending food and water to the hungry soldiers at Fort Sumter, but the Southern Confederates wanted to fight and ignored this gesture and ultimately started the Civil War.
I believe that one of the greatest developers leading up to the civil war was the publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I believe it gave both sides of the war an argument that allows them to justify their entrance into the war. For the North, Uncle Tom’s Cabin exposed the cruelties of slavery and its negative impact on the vision of America as a whole to other countries. For the South, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a drastic exaggeration of a practice that was part of their views of American culture and was a necessary good to the country. They believed that the book was questioning God’s way of ranking “species” in the world.
I believe that the secession of South Carolina was the point of no return for America. I believe it made an example of itself to the other Confederate states, showing that the union couldn’t keep control of them any longer. This kickstarted a chain reaction of states questioning their federal government’s ways of running the country and gave them the pride and comfort to begin fighting for what they viewed was right. Once South Carolina seceded, the North could only stand and watch as the Union unravelled state by state.
Yes it was. There are many events that occured that made the civili war inevitable such as, 1. Compromise of 1850 (with the updated Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which infuriated the North)
2. Publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1853)
3. Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)–which invalidated the Compromise of 1820 (Missouri Compromise) allowing slavery as far North as Nebraska
4. Murders of John Brown in 1856
5. Bleeding of Kansas and the burning of Lawrence, Kansas
6. Brooks-Sumner Affair (1856)
7. Dred Scott decision (1857)
8. Lincoln-Douglas debates for senatorial seat of Illinois (1858)
9. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA (1858)
10. Trial and execution of John Brown (1859). All wars are avoidable. This war had an inevitability to it stretching back to the arguments underlying the writing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I agree with Adam that the personalities of those involved would not allow it to be headed off, but when you look back over the growing schism in American politics of that time – the glorification of states’ rights over the cohesion of the federal system – it was a metastasis of the original divisions over the role of federalism into something far more lethal. Looking at the writings of those who were there – e.g., the growth of the Southern myth which likened the plantation owners of the South to the aristocrats of Sir Walter Scott’s novels, which questioned the very equality of individuals found in the Constitution and Bill of Rights – it seems to me something had to give. It was a fundamental rift in this country which made a violent conflict more or less inevitable.
1. From 1846 to 1861, one thing that contributed most to the war was the Kansas Nebraska act. The tension between the North and South was already growing and had mounted extremely high, but the possibility of another slave or free-state was a big argument, and was to be decided by popular sovereignty, instead of following the Missouri Compromise. But it was just Kansas and Nebraska; it was the entire west was up for debate on becoming free or not. For hotter heads to prevail there would have had to been a better compromise drawn up that allowed time for the south’s economy to become independent from slavery.
2. I believe that the secession by South Carolina had the greatest impact on the war. Once one state seceded it brought all the others with it and created a chain reaction that would be very hard to settle without violence in such a young and new country. Although you cannot say it was just one act that ignited the war, it was an enormous step taken that definitely sparked the fire of Civil War. I don’t think it was possible to avoid because neither side would budge or give in to a compromise that didn’t fully support their needs. We were still a young country on its rise and slavery was a major issue that we needed to address before we put our self out into the world as the great nation we became. How can you avoid the Civil War after one state has a seceded and others likely to follow? It made dealing with slavery much more difficult when you have the southern part of the country forming its own union and decreased the chance of bargaining down incredibly low.
1. One event that I believe impacted the start of the war more than any other event or thing was John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. The reason I believe this was such a powerful event was because John Brown was a white man who felt so strongly about abolishing slavery. Him and his men took over a warehouse loaded with weaponry in hopes that enraged slaves would join in the rebellion and take action into their own hands. Unfortunately, no slaves took the lead or even assisted in the rebellion. When John Brown was captured by General Robert E. Lee, he was tried and sentenced to death. After the death of John Brown, northerners heard of his brave and noble deeds and saw him as a hero. Southerners, on the other hand, felt very threatened and feared future John Brown “copy cats”. This caused tension between the nation and ultimately tore the nation apart.
2. The event with the greatest impact in the last 16 months I believe was the secession of South Carolina. When South Carolina seceded, this caused many other states to join forces with South Carolina and secede as well. If South Carolina hadn’t seceded in the first place, perhaps the others wouldn’t have seceded at all. The secession caused Abraham Lincoln to be faced with a difficult decision. But, with the need for unity and the want to abolish slavery, the Civil War was definitely inevitable if what needed to be accomplished was going to be.