What was the impact on the tensions leading to the Civil War? Essay sample
In such a large and diverse country as the US, the civil war was inevitable. The Northern and Southern states developed differently and pursued different goals. While the North was an industrialized economy that started hiring immigrants as a cheap workforce, the South tightly clang to its slaves. The agrarian economy of the Southern states held entirely on a huge number of African slaves, and the few landlords who owned them did not want to change the situation. However, abolitionism and arguments between states pushed the conflict to the edge. Discrepancies between the North and the South led to secession, in which Northern and Western states stood for preserving the union while the Southern part strove to establish a confederation independent of the rest of the country. In the meantime, the institute of slavery bulged at the seams. The federal and state governments argued on who is authorized to abolish slavery in every particular state. Despite the restricted slavery, the Supreme Court denied citizenship requests from African people, like in the case of Dred Scott (1857). The decision of Supreme court was very controversial and it pushed the US even closer to war. The fights between abolitionists and pro-slavery groups exacerbated with the appearance of John Brown and his followers. The group was claimed to arm slaves with guns from the federal arsenal top arrange an insurrection. Eventually, Brown was tried and hanged. When Northern abolitionists made him into a martyr, Southern states took it as the assassination attempt. In the 1850s, opponents of slavery formed the Republican Party. The Southern states especially feared that the Republicans will abolish slavery, especially after Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, won the presidential elections.