Causes_of_the_American_Civil_War

The South, the Confederate States of America, seceded from the North, the Union, for many different reasons. Mainly this was caused byfour decades of immense sectional conflict. Furthermore, the North and South were extremely different economically, socially, and politically. However, the biggest difference was the North and South’s diverse interpretation of the Constitution especially when it came to the issue of slavery. The North favored a loose interpretation of the United States Constitution. Additionally, they wanted to grant the federal government more powers. The South, however, wanted to reserve the vague constitutional powers to the states. The North also wanted internal improvements supported by the federal government; projects such as roads, railroads, and canals. On the other hand, the South was not concerned with these types of enhancements, and was quite content with their world of agriculture. Another difference between these two sections of the country was that the North wanted to establish a high tariff to protect their Northern manufacturers, however, a tariff such as this would hurt the South because it would inhibit the South’s ability to trade foreign goods. On top of all these disagreements, the Union and Confederates could not agree on the slavery issue. The South wanted and needed slavery to continue their lives, which to this point werebased on agriculture. If slavery became unconstitutional the Southerners would lose a substantial amount of investment from their numerousslaves. Additionally, slave owners would need to hire people to cultivate the tobacco, rice, and indigo in the fields. The number of slaves in the South during this time was unusually high becausethe invention of the cotton gin allowed much more cotton to be harvested. From 1810 to 1860 the amount of slaves needed to work the fields rose from 1,190,000 to over 4,000,000. Southerners felt that they were doing their slaves a favor… they felt African Americans in the South were being taken care of better than the wage-slave system free factory workers in the North. Slave owners provided shelter, food, health care, and regulation to a race of people they thought were unable to live on their own. The North, however, believed slavery was unconstitutional. By 1804, seven of the Northern states had abolished slavery completely. Surges of democratic reform swept the North and West for political equality and they refused to allow slavery in new territories. The North was determined to completely abolish slavery in the United States. Sectional interest became very apparent in the expansion of newly acquired territories. The South wanted to expand slavery in the newly acquired territories but the North wanted to limit the number of slave states in the Union. The Southerners knew that a government dominated by free states would endanger the existing slave rights. This is why when Missouri asked to be admitted as a slave state it caused a large controversy. Congress temporarily solved this conflict with the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This allowed the legislature to regulate the extension of slavery for the next three decades. The balance of eleven free states and eleven slave states was now in danger. To appease the South, the compromise allowed all territories below the 36° 30’ northin the Louisiana Purchase would be slave territory; everything north would be free soil. For almost a generation, the Missouri Compromise held the North and South together, butin 1848 the Union obtained a large piece of territory from Mexico. This land would present a new opportunity for the South to gain more slaveterritory. But because the land was being given away in small lots, it aided thesmall farmer (who owned few or no slaves) instead of a plantation owner (with many slaves). Another compromise was then made called the Compromise Measures of 1850. The benefits for the South were the beginning of popular sovereignty in the New Mexico and Utah territories. A fugitive slave law was also enacted which required runaway slaves to be returned to their masters. Northerners, however, continued to help slaves escape. The North benefits included the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia and California’s admission to the country as a free state. Hostility between the slave and free states gradually intensified. The Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 made the sectionalism worse. It admitted Kansas and Nebraska as states and further stated that popular sovereignty would decide the states’ position on slavery. This act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which banned slavery north of the 36° 30’. This contributed to the building of tensions as free soilers and slave owners fought for political control of the states. Lincoln’s election in 1860 was the last straw that broke the South’s back. Lincoln was clearly against slavery which made the South feel threatened. If slavery expansion was longer continued, free states would be in the majority and which would eventually lead to complete outlaw of slavery. The South felt, therefore, there was nothing else they could do other than to secedeto protect their way of life. One Southern man stated. “We have at last reached that point in our history when it is necessary for the South to withdraw from the Union. This has not beenour seeking…but we are bound to accept it or self-preservation.” Lincoln declared that succession was illegal and thus began the Civil War between the North and the South.