In Mr. Baumgardner's
class, we looked at the conflicts that led to the Civil War. We put
these conflicts into three categories: economic, political, and
emotional.
Economically, the South was
dependent on agriculture, while in the North they were dependent on
manufacturing and trade. The conflict was when the North wanted laws
that favored their economy. This was in the form of a tariff which
would make people want to buy goods made in the United States. The
South did not want a tariff because most of the people in the South
bought imported goods.
Politically, the North feared the
extension of slavery in the Western territories. They wanted the new
states to be free ones while the South wanted them to be slave
states. The people in the slave states felt that slaves were property
and did not want their rights as property owners taken away.
Compromises were made to calm the disputes but did not last
long.
Emotionally, feelings were strong
on both sides of the slavery issue. Books like Uncle Tom's Cabin exposed the cruelties of slavery. The
abolitionist movement (the movement to end slavery) was becoming
stronger in the North, while in the South people saw the movement as
a threat to their way of life. The man who was a symbol of this
threat was Abraham Lincoln. He spoke out against slavery and as such,
terrified the South. Southerners thought that if Lincoln was elected
president, their way of life would end.
When Lincoln was elected, the
states started to secede and form the Confederate States of America,
or the Confederacy. Lincoln pledged to preserve the Union and hold
all Federal property.
The test came when Confederate
leaders asked the Union to surrender to them Fort Sumter in
Charleston harbor. When the Union troops refused, guns fired and the
Civil War began. (See Crisis
at Fort Sumter. Tulane
University)
Fort Sumter National
Monument