Assignment help – Discuss three of the leading causes of the American Civil War:
• The Kansas Nebraska Act 1854
The Kansas Nebraska Act mandated popular sovereignty. It allowed settlers to decide whether to allow or prohibit slavery in their states. Kansas Nebraska repealed the 1820 Missouri compromise. Missouri compromise declared Maine free and permitted slavery in Missouri. That caused division in the Whig Party, one of the major political parties. The southern Whig that was in support of the bill joined the Democratic Party, while the northern Whig joined the Republican Party.
• The Dred Scott Case of 1857
Dred Scott was born a slave in Missouri. His master took him to Minnesota and Illinois; they were free states. At Minnesota, Dred married and got a daughter. When Scott’s owner returned to Missouri, he went back with Scott and his family. Scott sued his master; he claimed that he had freed him by taking him to states free from slavery. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled in favor of Scott’s master. The majority of the justices who were southerners also supported Taney’s ruling. They argued that slaves are property, and a master has a right to take them wherever they want. That split the Democratic Party into two; northern and southern sections.
• The Lincoln Douglas Debates 1858
When Abraham Lincoln was nominated as a candidate of the Republican Party in the senatorial campaign to compete against Stephen Douglas, he mentioned in his acceptance speech that the government would not stand if it had half slave and half free states. In the debates, Douglas branded Lincoln a radical who was threatening the stability of the Union Army. Lincoln condemned slavery and perceived it as wickedness. At some point, Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile Dred Scott’s case and popular sovereignty. Douglas argued that settlers could evade the decision by establishing a slave cord that protected the master’s property, which meant no one could take slaves into a territory without it. It outraged the south and led to the division of the Democratic Party.
Assess if the American civil war was inevitable
Slavery was a contentious issue that raised animosity in the northern and southern states before the civil war. It led to the division of the Union Army. The recognition of the United States as a single entity was critical; therefore, the federal government could not have allowed the division of the states, making the war inevitable.
References
Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Sandford, Dred Scott V. “Dred Scott v. Sandford.” Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History 381 (2007).
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