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1. Background and causes of the Civil War
Most people simplistically say that the Civil War was
fought over slavery but actually there is no “simple” reason.
The causes of the war were a complex series of events.Besides the slavery
issue there were many other significant contributing factors in America´s
bloodiest conflict such as competing nationalisms, the definition of
freedom, political turmoil, the structure of society and economy and
the wish to preserve the Union at all costs.
Constitutional Question, Tariffs and Nullification
Crisis
Early on the Southern states had little to no confidence
in the federal government. They regarded the federal government as oppressive
and controlled by Northern industrialists who were unresponsive to the
demands and problems of Southerners.Philosophical justifications for
states to oppose federal laws they believed unconstitutional had already
been supplied by the anti-federalists Jefferson and Madison with the
doctrine of interposition.
In 1828 Vice President C. Calhoun said if a state felt a federal law extended
beyond the Constitutional rights of the government that state had the right
to ignore or “nullify” it. The concept of nullification dated back
the Articles of Confederation.
In the same year Northern businessmen helped get the “Tariff Act” passed
at the expense of the South. It raised the prices of manufactured products
from Europe which were sold mainly in the Southern States. The purpose of the
law was to encourage the South to buy the North´s manufactured goods
in order to protect the northern industries, disregarding the demands of the
Southern consumers for cheap products. This, of course, reminded the Southerners
of the economic discrimination and exploitation suffered before the war of
Independence. When South Carolina refused to collect the tariff and threatened
to withdraw from the Union in 1832 Andrew Jackson ordered federal troops to
Charleston. Yet a secession could be averted at that time when Congress revised
the Tariff of Abominations in 1833. However the political climate between the
North and the South worsened from this “Nullification Crisis” on.
Growing envy and dissatisfaction in the North.
The period from 1815 to 1860, apart from the so-called
panic of 1837 during which cotton prices dropped by half, proved a golden
age for American agriculture. Demand for American farm products was high,
both in the United States and Europe, and agricultural prices and production
rose dramatically. Southern cotton sold abroad totalled 57% of all American
exports before the war. The economic crisis of 1857 left the South virtually
untouched whereas the North was devastated. The fact that the South weathered
the depression much better than the North was taken by Southerners as
an important sign of the strength of the Southern economy and more radical
personalities in the region, who were already considering a secession,
believed that the South could function independently of the North on
cotton exports alone. As a result of the crisis the clash of the wealthy
agricultural South and the industrial, densely and heavily populated
North was increasingly intensified. Envy and anger spread among the Northerners
who on the whole had a twelve hour workday whereas Southerners preferred
to let slaves toil. Despite the hard and partly cruel work in manufactures
the Northerners did prefer to do without slaves as they believed in human
liberty and considered slavery as an inhuman institution. Many Northerners
started to refer to Southerners as arrogant, stuck-up, aristocratic or
simply disagreeable just as Southerners increasingly disliked the Northerners.
An apparently unbridgeable gap opened between them.
The gap between North and South
In order to get an idea of the progressive alienation
process that took place, the tensions and the reasons for the demand
for independence on the part of the Confederates it is important to consider
some more facts. Beyond any doubts slavery was the most visible and controversial
difference between the North and South. Processing industries in the
North, run by skilled workers and wage earners faced plantations often
owned by wealthy big landowners and run by slaves and day labourers in
the Confederacy.In the northern cities a small, wealthy percentage of
the population controlled a large segment of the economy while the working
poor, whose number swelled by large-scale immigration, owned little or
nothing. In the North textile manufacturing was the leading American
industry before the Civil War and Pittsburgh, was the centre of the iron
and military industry, a fact that was especially decisive for the final
victory of the Union. The wealth in the South, too, was unevenly distributed
but despite the large number of very rich farmers the North´ s
industrial and financial strength was superior. The Union had a population
of 19 million and ten times the industrial capacity of the South whereas
the Confederacy had 9.5 million inhabitants of whom one third were slaves.
By most measures – the number of railroads, canals, factories,
urban centres and the balance between agriculture and industry – the
two regions were moving in opposite directions. Unlike the North that
underwent an industrial revolution only few railroads were made in the
South and even public education apart from a few rich landowners who
hired tutors for their children was considered not particularly important
in the South. Due to all these differences and the feeling not to be
represented appropriately in the federal government the demand for political
independence was high and it got even higher the more arguments there
were.
Political turmoil and the slavery issue
Early on disputes between the so different Southern
and Northern states were the order of the day. The controversy over the
kind of representation is one of an awful lot of quarrels that is worth
mentioning because of its impact on later issues. Whereas the heavily
populated states, mainly in the North, wanted a proportional representation
based on the population the small states demanded equal representation
(one state, one vote). The so-called Great Compromise provided that seats
in the House of Representatives would be apportioned according to the
population of each state, with members elected directly by the people
whereas in the Senate, each state would have two senators, voting independently,
chosen by their legislatures.
Another controversy was led about whether or how to count slaves as a significant
percentage of the population in the Southern states were slaves. In a compromise
was determined that three fifths of the slaves were counted. In the years before
the war arguments between North and South had been growing. The political power
in the Federal Government, centered in Washington D.C., was changing. The Northern
and Mid Western States were becoming more and more powerful as their population
increased whereas the Southern States were losing political power. By the early
1800´s the Northern states, that outlawed slavery and the Southern States,
that depended more and more on slaves as a source of cheap labour, sought for
compromises to maintain a balance between the number of free states and slave
states in order to have an equal number of representatives in the US Senate.
In 1819 there were eleven of each. Yet the controversy broke out again when
Missouri applied for admission to the Union.
In terms of the Missouri Compromise, Massachusetts gave up part of its northern
territory, which became the new state of Maine, entering the Union as a free
state in 1820. Missouri entered as a slave state, so that the balance was temporarily
restored. Unfortunately this was only the beginning of a series of debates
about slave states and non-slave states. California that applied for statehood
in 1849 triggered off another debate followed by Kansas and Nebraska. The Kansas
Nebraska Act provided that the people of Kansas and Nebraska would decide for
themselves whether or not to allow slavery.
Few, if any, American laws had more far reaching effects than the Kansas Nebraska
Act because even moderate opponents of slavery who accepted slavery where it
already existed were not willing to accept its expansion into new territories.
Furious anti-slavery Americans, the so-called abolitionists who were led by
William Loyd Garrison stepped up their campaign against slavery and started
publishing an antislavery newspaper, the Liberator, in 1831. The abolitionists,
however, were divided on how best to achieve their goals, namely
- the immediate abandonment of slavery without compensation
for slave holders
- the end of the domestic slave-trade
- and radically the recognition of the equality of backs and whites
While Garrison opposed political action, moderate abolitionists
formed the Liberty party. Political and social turmoil swept through
the country and the Southerners increasingly referred to themselves as
a separate national group.
The book Uncle Tom´s Cabin about the horrors of slavery stirred anti-slavery
feelings to fever pitch and in 1856 the first fighting broke out between pro-slavery
and anti-slavery settlers. Meanwhile the number of slaves rose from 1.2 million
in 1810 to 3.8 million in 1860.
The antebellum was a turbulent political time. From 1837 until 1861 eight men
became president but none of these held office for more than one term. Presidents
withdrew their name after being nominated or they were simply not renominated
by their own party. The Democratic Party, was split about the slavery issue
and besides the Democrats were divided between Northern and Southern wings,
each wing selecting its own candidate for the Presidency. In 1856 the Republican
party was founded by political groups who opposed the policy of the democrats
and the spread of slavery into the new territories.
At the beginning of the Civil war, the goal of the North was simply to restore
the union. Both Abraham Lincoln and Congress made it clear neither to have
an intention of interfering with slavery where it already existed nor to wage
a war against the established institutions. The Emancipation Proclamation that
took effect on January 1, 1863, however, broadened the purpose of the war into
a crusade against slavery as the president realized that the slavery issue
could not be avoided for political, moral and military reasons. Yet, the proclamation
did not apply to border slave states but only to those states in rebellion,
a fact that underlines the claim that the American Civil War was not originally
waged to abolish slavery. Changing the conflict into a war about human freedom
was an attempt of the North to justify the war, to weaken the Southern economy,
to win the military support of thousands of Blacks, to keep Europeans from
interfering in the Civil war on the part of the Confederates and to encourage
the war-weary Northerners to further sacrifices.
The Southerners on the other side fought under the dual banners of states ´rights
and preserving their way of life. Being both too proud and too convinced of
resisting all pressure from the North or even defeating the Unionists the Confederates
fought until the very last end disregarding their military inferiority and
hopelessness.
Briefly speaking the American Civil War was the result of a many aspects comprising
alienation process between Northerners and Southerners triggered off by the
nullification crisis, stirred to fever pitch by the abolition movement and
culminating in a demand for independence on the part of the Confederates intolerable
by the federal government.
2. The progress
of the Civil War
As the Democrats were split about the slavery issue,
Abraham Lincoln, the new candidate of the Republican party who was considered
to be an opponent of slavery, won the presidential election of 1860.
The Civil war began on April 12, 1861, when Southern troops fired on
Fort Sumter after eleven Southern states had seceded and established
the Confederate States of America under president Jefferson Davis. Both
sides prepared for battle after the Fort Sumter skirmish. The border
slave states Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri remained loyal.
The North had clear advantages over the South at the start of the war. The
North had the resources and the manpower to equip and to put many more men
in the field than the South and was comparatively an industrial powerhouse,
far outstripping the Confederacy in available raw materials, factory production
and railroads. However, despite these strengths and the numerical superiority
of the Union troops the North did not face an easy or short war. Military,
the North faced the difficult challenges of invading a large territory and
maintaining long supply lines. Besides northern Generals and troop leaders,
particularly during the early stages of the war, such as John Pope and George
Mc Clellan proved less daring and innovative than their southern counterparts,
Additionally the Confederates had the advantage of fighting on their own ground,
defending their own homes, being excellent riders and marksmen and of having
a greater sense of unity.
The first part of the war that took place in the East proved a series of failures.
In the first Battle of Bull Run the inexperienced Union army was easily defeated
and also an attempt to invade Virginia from the sea and to seize Richmond and
the other major cities failed. The battle of Shiloh, the battle of Antietam,
the battle of Fredericksburg and that at Chancellorsville in 1863 ended inconclusively
for the Union despite an often overwhelming numerical superiority of Union
troops.
The Union army had greater success in the West. After the Confederates had
been driven out of Kentucky Memphis was captured and later New Orleans and
the Baton Rouge were taken by sea. The Northern navy increasingly played an
important role in the western campaign, blockading Southern ports so that the
Confederates had no revenue from the sale of cotton, sugar and tobacco. As
a consequence the Confederates faced far worse financial problems than the
North. More and more paper money was put into circulation even though there
was little to no public confidence in it and so inflation rose dramatically.
The Union finally gained control of all the territory along the Mississippi,
cutting the Southern territory in half. Despite this great success on the part
of the Union a kind of stalemate position came about.
In July 1863 Robert E. Lee, the most famous general of the Confederates, decided
to throw everything into a final land battle at Gettysburg in the hope that
a major victory would weaken the determination of Northern people to go on
fighting. General E. Lee´ s gamble was a failure, though. He had to retreat
after immense losses.The war went on for quite some time but after Gettysburg
the eventual outcome was no longer in balance and General Lee was obliged to
surrender to Northern General Ulysses S.Grant when Richmond fell in April 1865.
However the last Confederate troops did not surrender until May 26,1865.
3. The Consequences of the American Civil War
As a result of the war about 360.000 Union troops and
civilians and perhaps 260.000 in Confederate states died. Property damage
was enormous in the South whereas the Union economically profited from
the conflict because of the increasing demand for iron, uniforms and
military products. Many southern towns, cities, plantations and railroads
lay in ruins and for a long time the South lagged behind the rest of
the nation economically. The war also caused deep and long-lasting feelings
of bitterness and division between the people of North and South.
The period following the war was called reconstruction but Abraham Lincoln,
one of the masterminds behind the war did not live to see it as he was assassinated
on April 14, 1865.
The defeat of the South had disastrous consequences for the Democrats being
closely allied with the South at the time of the war. For the following 35
years the Republicans held office with only a few exceptions.
After the victory of the Union, several amendments concerning the slavery issue
were added to the Constitution.
·
The 13th amendment to the constitution in 1865 abolished slavery
·
The 14th amendment in 1868 gave citizenship to black Americans
·
The 15th amendment in 1870 guaranteed all male citizens of the USA, the blacks
included, the right to vote
After the Civil war the Northerners lost interest in the Negro question and
let the South handle the race problem in its own way. Even in the North existed
a de facto discrimination regarding housing, education and income. Blacks turned
to politics and education and tried to achieve economic security but were too
poor to buy land and therefore remained largely dependent on their former masters.
With the withdrawal of the Unionist troops Southerners started the “white
blacklash” to restore white political power.In order to eliminate blacks
as a political force in the South high poll taxes and literacy tests were introduced.
Furthermore the so-called “Jim Crow laws” were passed barring blacks
from political buildings such as schools, hotels and cemeteries as well as
from public transportation and introducing legal segregation. The Ku-Klux Klan,
a fanatical racist society that practised lynching, made the life of blacks
even worse. Black migration to the industrial centres of the North set in around
1910. Several important groups were founded during the 20th century such as
the NAACP, the CORE, the SCLC, and the “Black Muslims” to end discrimination
and inequality in all sectors of public life and to achieve civil rights for
blacks.Blacks achieved equal status by law in all social matters not before
the Civil Right Act in 1964 and a year later the poll tax in elections was
abolished which made it easier for black voters to register.
The most prominent blacks in the 20th century were Jesse Jackson, David Dinkins,
Douglas Wilder and of course Martin Luther King. Jesse Jackson was the first
black politician to stand as a candidate for the presidential position on behalf
of the Democrats in the pre-elections in 1984 and 1988. David Dinkins became
the first black major of New York and Douglas Wilder became the first black
man to be elected governor of any US state.However, beyond any doubts Martin
Luther King was the most prominent figure of the Civil rights movement who
successfully fought for the rights of blacks. His engagement had a high price,
though. In 1968, five years after his famous speech “I have a dream” he
was assassinated. Since 1983 Martin Luther King´s birthday has been a
federal public holiday. Unfortunately even today Martin Luther King´s
dream that all men are created equal has not really come true as current unemployment
statistics show that the lack of training and schooling as well as racial prejudice
are still dominant factors in the professional life of blacks. Even though
the situation on the job front, in housing and school facilities is slowly
progressing, the blacks are socially and economically still disadvantaged and
underprivileged. In 1992 more than 30 % of all blacks lived below poverty level
and the total family income of blacks was 45 % lower than that of whites.
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