American Civil War: The Birthpangs of the United States
The American Civil War (1861-1865) was the pivotal event in United States history and the largest armed conflict in the Western world following the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) and prior to the beginning of the First World War (1914). The central cause of the war was the institution of slavery, which had increasingly caused conflict between Southern states, which relied heavily on slave labor for their agrarian economy, and Northern states, which were heavily industrialized and had far less need for slaves.
The post-Civil War claim that the conflict was fought over states' rights, still repeated today, is untenable unless one amends the argument to read, "the Civil War was fought over states' rights to uphold the institution of slavery." Documents from slave-owning states giving their reason for secession from the Union in 1860 and 1861 repeatedly cite the need to uphold slavery, and earlier records and events support the claim that slavery was the foundational cause for all the other problems that had come to divide the North and South in the first half of the 19th century.
The war raged from 12 April 1861, when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, to 9 April 1865, when Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union general Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. Hostilities continued after April, however, and the final end of the war is often given as 26 May 1865, when Confederate Lt. General Simon B. Buckner surrendered the Trans-Mississippi Department.
The war ended slavery in the United States, abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, destroyed the plantation system and agrarian economy of the South, further industrialized the North, and cost upwards of 650,000 lives. The Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) brought the warring states back into a cohesive Union, establishing the United States of America as it has been commonly understood since.
As noted, the American Civil War was fought over slavery even though, initially, President Abraham Lincoln was only interested in preserving the Union and preventing the spread of slavery into territories that were not yet states. All the major events leading up to the war had to do with disputes between free states and slave states, and these include:
Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1808 cut off the supply of slaves from outside the United States, although the demand by Southern states was high, resulting in illegal smuggling operations in the South and attempts to stop them by the federal government.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, continuing the balancing act of the government to placate Northern and Southern interests regarding slavery.
Nat Turner's Rebellion of 1831: The deadliest slave uprising in US history, Turner's rebellion encouraged widespread discussion of emancipation while also leading to harsher slave laws that were condemned by Northern abolitionists. Southern slaveholders blamed the abolitionists for the insurrection.
The Nullification Crisis of 1832: South Carolina challenged federal tariffs and asserted states' rights to nullify federal laws and regulations, establishing a foundation later used to justify secession.
Publication of Frederick Douglass' Autobiography in 1845: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass became the bestselling slave narrative prior to the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. Both works, as well as others by former slaves, increased the momentum of the abolitionist movement.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated that citizens of all states must aid in capturing and returning escaped slaves under threat of fine and/or imprisonment. The law was highly unpopular in the North, causing resentment toward Southern slaveholders.
The Compromise of 1850 established the concept of popular sovereignty in territories, allowing the people to choose whether to become a slave or free state. The law admitted California as a free state but, at the same time, strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed popular sovereignty to decide whether the territories of Kansas and Nebraska would be free or slave states, leading to the violence of "Bleeding Kansas" in which pro-slavery and free-staters fought each other, often considered a "dress rehearsal for the Civil War."
The Dred Scott Decision of 1857 ruled that Black people in America were not citizens, had no rights, and so could not bring lawsuits. It also ruled that Congress had no power to ban slavery in territories not yet part of the United States.
John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859: Abolitionist John Brown tried to incite a large-scale slave rebellion in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in hopes of ending slavery in the United States.
Election of Abraham Lincoln as President in 1860: Lincoln's platform of controlling the spread of slavery westward alarmed Southerners, who saw this as a threat to their way of life. After Lincoln was elected, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union.
Lincoln's election ignited the Secession Crisis, in which seven states, fearing Lincoln would abolish slavery, seceded from the Union. These seven, in order, were:
South Carolina (20 December 1860)
Mississippi (9 January 1861)
Florida (10 January 1861)
Alabama (11 January 1861)
Georgia (19 January 1861)
Louisiana (26 January 1861)
Texas (1 February and 23 February 1861)
Lincoln was inaugurated on 4 March 1861, and the Confederate forces under P. G. T. Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter on 12 April, starting the American Civil War. After this, four other states seceded:
Virginia (17 April and 23 May 1861)
Tennessee (7 May and 8 June 1861)
North Carolina (20 May 1861)
Texas, Virginia, and Tennessee have two dates indicating the decision to secede and the date the vote passed. These eleven became the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as their president.
⇒ American Civil War: The Birthpangs of the United States
