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Assess the extent to which slavery was the main cause of disunion and the civil war.
[typed word for word from what I wrote. No real edits. ]
Historians have continually argued over the complex factors that led to the US Civil War.
However the major factors leading the disunion of the North and the South were
The first and most fundamental issue that rose from slavery was the question of
the morality of slavery. Several events had raised the awareness of the general public
concerning the “evil” of slavery. One was the reformist sprit that had been stirred by the
2nd Great Awakening. Secondly, the various abolitionists like William Garrison who
participated in lectures with the Lyecum Group. Thirdly, various writers were compelled
to take a stand against slavery. An example is Harriet Breecher Stowe’s, Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, that reached millions of people and Abraham Lincoln even dubbed Harriet Stowe
as the lady that started this war. Overall, by the 1680s, most of the Northerners felt they
The second issue was the problem of balancing sectional powers As new
territories were gained from the Mexican War, the question of admitting free or slave
states were brought to the spotlight. In the late 1840s, California sought admittance as a
free state caused by the influx from the Gold Rush leading to the necessity of law and
order. The south wanted California as a slave state in order to preserve the precious
balance between the North and the South. Fortunately, Clay, Calhoun, and Webster were
able to construct a rocky Compromise in 1850 that temporarily ended the disputes by
creating a stronger Fugitive Slave Act and giving a 10 million dollar compensation to
Texas for the compensation for the land taken from them. However this dispute over
slave and free states would not end. The South would continually attempt to gain more
slave states through attempting to conquer Cuba and would lead to the third cause of the
Civil War.
The third cause to the civil war was an extension from the territorial disputes over
sectional problems. The dilemma over slave and free states would lead to the passage of
the Kansas-Nebraska Act advocated by Stephan A. Douglas with the concept of popular
move to Kansas. The South responded by taking the city of abolitionist city of Lawrence,
Kansas, rigging ballots and setting up a puppet government. They also constructed the
Lecompton Constitution that favored slavery. Overall, the North and the South created a
mini civil war over the disputer of slave and free states. “Bloody Kansas” and John
Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry convinced the South that secession was the only answer.
Although the civil war was not initially declared as a war to end slavery, it was
the root of many factors leading to the disunion and eventual United States civil war.