Origins of the Civil War
By: Gabriel Hernandez
It
all started way back in America in the 1600s with mere economic purposes. The United
States was at the zenith of tobacco production with indentured servants working
on plantations. With the years passing by, there was an approximate of 4000
African Americans working miserably in tobacco plantations in the 1700s.
Unfortunately, future events for the African American people didn’t get any
better, instead they got worse. For the following long years to come, the black
community suffered and worked having blood and sweat running down from their back.
The North
West Black Codes gave a small spar of hope for slaves. This document stated
slavery to be technically illegal. However, in the Northern area of the Ohio
River, African Americans were still under the authority of White Americans. So,
the NWBC didn’t show any kind of change due to the people who kept their
slaves. Nevertheless, the Congress endeavored for a solution in 1820 with the
Missouri Compromise. This was an agreement made by the Congress itself dividing
Missouri into two states; one being against slavery and the other in favor. By
1830, the slave holder added up 36 percent of the white population. The anti
slavery advocates founded the country of Liberia in Africa. They proposed
people who suffered from slavery or that were prompt to suffer under the veil
of it to move to the new lands of Liberia. However, this caused a major
controversy since some people said they still believed they could have an opportunity
in America when in reality, they didn’t, they were just building dreams based
on naïve hopes. The same year as the NWBC, the three-fifths compromise was
created. It said that all enslaved people would be counted nevertheless; the
total would be multiplied by three fifths.
African
Americans made a major contribution to the South since they were the architects
of its strong economic progress during that epoch. At this point in history,
the North’s economy depended on the Southern capability to manufacture their
goods. The South based its economy on products such as; cotton and tobacco. By
1860, African Americans made up half of the population of South Carolina and
Mississippi.
In
1820, there was an open resistance led by Denmark Vesey followed by African
Americans in South Carolina. There is evidence of slaves fighting back in the
South. A few years later, the resistance to abolition came to the mind of the
American people in 1836. With the series of events that occurred in the
abolition iconic characters from American history are introduced such as
Harriet Tubman with the Underground Railroad. The gag rule came right behind
this and states that all anti slavery petition would be automatically stable
for the next 18 years to come.
The
final events previous to the civil war were probably the most crucial for such
event. The inability of politicians to resolve the question of whether or not
slavery should be allowed in their territories raised major disputes among the
people. The fighting for remainance of the South in the US and the North
becoming more populous and urban than the South created tension between both
territories. In 1860, things became worse due to the industrialization of the
North having 110,000 factories. Finally and probably most influential
Kansas-Nebraska Act. This document proclaimed that people should decide if
slavery is to be allowed or not however, it proved that there would be no
peaceful reaction toward any decision taken.
The
slavery days in the United States were part of their dark chapters from their
history throughout the years. For the disgrace of the slaves, many gloomy
events had to occur in order for slavery to come to its end. Slavery should
have never existed in first place since in the end, people are the same. They
are humans such as everyone else and should be respected and treated as such as
well.
