The American Civil War and
The Causes, Course, Consequences, Reconstruction and the Effects on the American People
Mira S. Syed
OH-Institute
The American Civil War and
The Causes, Course, Consequences, Reconstruction and its Effects on the American People
“The Civil War has been the most serious test yet of the ability of the United States to remain one nation” (The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 2005). Only seventy-eight years after the American Revolution the new nation of the United States is fighting a civil war. Brothers, neighbors and friends fought against each other during the darkest period of the United States. Looking at the causes and course of the American Civil War will give insight into the consequences and how the reconstruction affected the American people.
When people think of the Civil War the first thing that comes to most peoples’ mind is slavery and there is a reason for that. Slavery is one of the cruelest, most barbaric institutions our world has devised. According to Douglass (1986), “I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (p. 84). With a nation divided between slave states and non-slave states conflict was ensured. With the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Act the tension between the slave states and the non-slave states increased.
The North and the South were different in many ways. Economically the North was built on industries and factories. The South earned its economic keep by agriculture and living off of the land. There was a larger population in the North which allowed them to open factories, but the South was a much more rural place. The solution to the lack of people to work the plantations was slavery. To import people and make them work under harsh conditions was the plan. Importing blacks as slaves created a social difference between the North and the South.
During the years that the North and the South lived in peace after the American Revolution, there was a balance between slave and non-slave states. The balance allowed the North and the South to live somewhat peacefully together. To try and keep a peaceful balance, legislation was put in place that was based on compromises; such as, allowing the territory of California to be admitted to the Union as a non-slave state only if other laws were put in place to strengthen slavery in the South. These acts of legislative compromise that were meant to keep the balance between slave and non-slave states ultimately made the country unbalanced.
The root of the slavery problem in America was the failure of the Founding Fathers to abolish slavery. The Founding Fathers acknowledged the subject of slavery but decided that slavery was a matter of state rather than federal jurisdiction. The only attempt they made to abolish slavery was to prohibit slavery in the North but not the South even though nine-tenths of all slaves in the United States were in the South. The decision of the Founding Fathers to allow states to decide the slavery issue for themselves allowed slavery to grow uncontrollably and ultimately lead to the Civil War (The History Channel website, 2010).
When Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States, many political officials in the South were not happy. They believed that he was against the institution of slavery and that he was in favor of destroying their economic way of life. The South did not trust him and did not agree with his political views. Since there was mistrust and ill-informed political officials in the South, the tension between the North and South grew.
During the time before, during and after the Civil War many abolitionist fought against slavery. Most people in the North were indifferent about the situation in the South. Soon though, northerners began to discover the cruelty of slavery. Some abolitionists during this time were Fredrick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Tubman. The abolitionists during this time were not only escaped slaves but also activists, journalists, and lecturers.
The Civil War officially started in 1861 but there were many events before the attack on Ft. Sumter that can be classified as part of the Civil War. On October 16, 1859, John Brown attacked the arsenal and armory of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia to make a point about the cruelty of slavery. After his attack he was hanged. In November, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President. His Vice President was Hannibal Hamlin. On December 18, 1860, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden. The Crittenden Compromise was the last attempt to resolve the secession crises with the South peacefully. Unfortunately this compromise failed and civil war was inevitable. Between December, 1860, and June, 1861, the southern states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee seceded. On March 11, 1861, the southern states that seceded from the Union formed the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. This act made the point that the Confederacy did not want to have anything to do with the Union and the Confederates were not going to go down without a fight. In March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated to president.
On April 12-13, 1861, the attack on Fort Sumter marked the official battle start of the Civil War. On July 21, 1861, First Manassas, also known as First Bull Run, was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. On April 6-7, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh served as America’s introduction to the “total warfare” of the rest of the Civil War. June 26-July 2, 1862, was the Seven Days’ Battle. During the time between June 26 and July 2, 1862, several battles were fought between the Union and the Confederacy. On September 17, 1862, Antietam was the bloodiest single day in the Civil War with a total of almost 5,000 deaths and about 18,500 wounded. On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln announces that on January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebelling states would be free with the Emancipation Proclamation. However, slaves in the border states of Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia would not be free. May 18-July 4, 1863, was the Battle of Vicksburg. After General Ulysses S. Grant delivered the city of Vicksburg to Abraham Lincoln he responded with "I have found the man who can win this war." The bloodiest battle during the Civil War was Gettysburg and took place July 1-3, 1863. The Battle of Chattanooga took place on November 23 through November 25, 1863. In March, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to Lt. General and given command of all union troops.
After the battles were fought many important events took place that finally ended the long Civil War. On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President for the second time. On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee refused to see his troops suffer any further. On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilks Booth while watching the third Act of the play “Our American Cousin.” On December 18, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified abolishing slavery.
Many events came out of the Civil War some positive and some negative. However all of the events played a part in how the world is today. Some of the most obvious negative consequences were the destruction of cities, towns, plantations and railroads. The South was more effected by this destruction because its livelihood had been blown away. Even if the crops had survived, the railroads were destroyed which carried all of the goods out of state. The South’s whole life style had changed due to the Civil War.
The destruction did not only reach buildings and railroads but it also destroyed families. The causalities of this war exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam. Since there are missing records of the losses from the Confederacy, the estimates of the casualties range from 618,000 to 700,000. These numbers include battle deaths, deaths from diseases, and other causes combined.
Even though slavery was outlawed in 1865, the racial discrimination in the South is still happening today. In the 1960s blacks took a stand against the segregation and discrimination laws and practices that were preventing them from living as the average white American, separate was not equal. The Civil Rights Movement lead by Martin Luther King Jr. was a turning point in the history of blacks in America. Blacks gained more rights on paper, but the racist actions of individuals who believed in white supremacy still put them as unequal to whites.
After the Civil War blacks were freed but they had to make a new life for themselves. Most slaves were illiterate and only had skills that they acquired while working as slaves on plantations. Blacks were financially unable to provide for themselves until they acquired new skills. The economic and educational differences between blacks and whites have lead to high levels of poverty in the black population. Most blacks have never been equal to white Americans because of the constant cycle of being born into low income, uneducated families.
Positive aspects from the Civil are normally over looked but there are some. At the end of the Civil War on December 18, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed to outlaw slavery. Three years after the Civil War ended and the slaves were freed, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed giving African Americans citizenship. The whole point of the Civil War according to Abraham Lincoln was to preserve the Union. The only way that Abraham Lincoln envisioned the preservation of the Union was to abolish slavery since it was at the heart of the differences between the North and the South.
There is no question that the Civil War was the greatest test yet of the United States to stay one nation. The Civil War made the United States stronger even if it left a path of destruction. Every action has its consequences whether the consequences be positive or negative is uncertain. The one thing people can control is how they look at the world around them. Some individuals decided to look at the world around them as a hierarchy while other see the world and its inhabitants as one being. The events that took place before, during and after the Civil War will forever have an impact on our lives. In the words of the great President Abraham Lincoln “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
References
civil war. (n.d.). The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Retrieved December 02, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/civil war
Douglass, F. (1986). Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave. New York, NY: Penguin Group
Founding Fathers. (2010). The History Channel website. Retrieved 8:29, December 8, 2010, from http://www.history.com/topics/founding-fathers.
Mullins, A. N., Smartt, L. R., & Syed, M. S. (2010). A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand. Prezi retrieved from http://prezi.com/9xj-xbctryti/a-house-divided-against-itself-cannot-stand/
