Sample Essay On Causes Of The American Civil War (1861-1865)

The era before the American Civil War, of between 1861 and 1865, saw a steady rise in tension between the Southern States and Northern States before full-blown battle. Evidently, Historians have since depicted slavery as the basis for war but the institution merely formed its roots, other factors branched out from the same.
Because of slavery, there emerged pro-slavery states in the south and the anti-slavery states in the north. Each side sought to reinforce its supporters and, as a result, “Bleeding Kansas” happened, marking the first serious confrontation between the two sides (Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey 2008, 412). The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed whites in the two areas to decide their stand on slavery through “popular sovereignty” (Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey 2008, 412). The decision in Kansas later caused a breach of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 in the Dred Scott decision of 1857. In deciding the case of Scott, who sought emancipation for living in a free state, Chief Justice Taney went further and declared Louisiana a pro-slavery state (Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey 2008, 418). The outcome of the case and infringement of the Missouri Compromise fuelled the northerner’s distrust of the south and encouraged the abolitionist movement.
The 1860 Presidential Election sealed America’s future to take up arms. The Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln detested slavery while Stephen Douglas of the Democratic Party supported the same. Apparently, Lincoln became Northerners’ ideal candidate and upon his victory, the southern states seceded from the Union (Ayers 2005, 14). Conclusively, the formation of the Confederacy by the Southerners encouraged Lincoln’s answer to the former’s call for war in a bid to reunite the States.

References

Ayers, Edward L. 2005. "What Caused the Civil War?" North & South 8 (5) : 12-18.
Kennedy, David, Lizabeth Cohen and Thomas Bailey. 2008. The American Pageant: Volume I: To 1877. Boston: Cengage Learning.