Civil War

3 Pages 729 Words

The American Civil WarIn 1860, arguably the world's greatest nation was locked in Civil War. Thewar divided the country between the North (Union) and South (Confederate).The war lasted five years and by 1865 the Confederate forces were trulybeaten. Out of this horrendous war though, where some 600,000 men died grewa greater sense of nationalism than is today, unrivalled around the world.The American Civil War is interpreted differently by many historians butmost see the catalyst as slavery, the motivation as economic, the outcomewas a unified national identity.Slavery was a major issue that triggered the American Civil War. Slaverystarted out, as a few individual slaves coming from England that weregenerally white. This changed however, and soon the Southern slave tradersbegan 'stealing' blacks to take back to the South. The slaves were forcedto work 16-hour days, slave women were only seen as breeders and there wereno laws against the rape of a female slave. In 1860 slaves accounted forone third of the South's population and even still they had no rights (seeappendix one). The Unionist North many people believed it was immoral toown another human being. These people were called Abolitionists. The Southrelied strongly on the slave trade and when the North spoke of abolishingit, the South spoke of forming there own country, The Confederate states ofAmerica. The South began to see that the North was going to take actionagainst the South's inhumane slave policy. In early 1860, South Carolinaformed under a new flag, Confederate States of America flag, so that theycould continue to operate their slave trade. What followed was an ordinanceof succession which saw the other slave populated states also swear an oathto the Confederate States of America, also so that they could continuetheir slave trade. This situation was found to be unworkable and it dividedthe country in two. So in the words of Abraham Lincoln, 'A house divideagainst itself can...