Pre-Civil War Essay
The Civil War arose out of the issue of the rights of states and both the
economic and political rivarly between the South and the North. States in the
South seceded from the Union after the election of Abraham Lincoln, but the
election of Lincoln was not the only cause of the South's secession. Many events
and movements increased the tension between the North and the South even
before the election of Lincoln and these events also contributed in laying the
groundwork for the Civil War.
The movements of abolitionists was a big issue that started to widen the
gap between the South and the North. The movement started from the North
mainly because they did not have as many slaves as the South did. At this time
the owners of the slaves used their slaves because of the growth of the cotton
economy. Since the cultivation of cotton was not suitable in the North, the North
had much less demand for slavery.
English: Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President ...
North Street (Ahead) Arthur Street (Left & Right) ...
Photograph of Stephen A. Douglas taken between 185...Around 1830's the abolitionists particularly
agitated for the emancipation of the slaves. The abolitionists were at first widely
abused and condemned. Mobs attacked them in the North, Congress passed the
gag rule to avoid their petitions and southerners burned antislavery pamphlets.
The antislavery movement gradually began to arise again with the emergence of
William Lloyd Garrison. The abolitionism was a big threat to the southernerns
who, especially, grew cotton. Without the slaves they would not be able to grow
cotton and it would affect the economy of the South greatly. Soon the anti-
abolitionist mobs were gathered and the violent assualt on abolitionists began to
occur across the nation. When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's
Cabin" in 1851, the abolitionists used it as an effective piece of propaganda. The
southerners tried to defend...