American History Essay Example: Slavery and Civil War

Slavery shaped the American Civil War by playing some of the central roles. Primarily, the catalyst of the states' secessions was a result of slavery. Slavery brought political tensions in southern America when the political leaders failed to oblige to the request of the Northern antislavery leaders. The Northerners wanted the expansion of western territories to be abolished which caused a sharp misunderstanding with the southerners. The slavery took acute changes on the face of America since the Southern realized that the Union Armies took control of the large part of the slavery land. Before and during the civil wars, slaves took an active role of emancipating themselves which lead to several of them escaping during the war. Nevertheless, the election of the 16th American president, Abraham Lincoln shaped civil war and slavery. On the 1st of January 1863, Abraham Lincoln changed the face of slavery by announcing the emancipation of slaves which legally freed over 3 million slaves. The Southern and Northern civil wars use the African American as soldiers. In the south, they were used as the slave laborers while in the northern part they were used as wage laborers in conjunction with voluntary militants. The war thus incorporated over 100, 000 African-American soldiers. Furthermore, most of the slaves approximately over 500, 000 of the slaves fled from the Union line plantations. Among the effects included the development of the religiosity and cultural expressions when the civil war was in progressive.

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It is a concern that on the side was slaves fighting for. The slaves fought on behave of their territories blindly. For instance, very many slaves were not aware of the Lincoln proclamations for quite some time so they were still being used to fight in the civil war. On the other hand, Northerner's slaves fought with the view of protecting the Union and also to end slavery. During the inauguration, on March 4th, 1861, President Lincoln claimed that it was his duty to protect the Union. Additionally, he stated that he had no intention of stopping slavery on the areas that they existed (Goodheart 3). However, the two sentiments sparked public uproars in areas that slavery was rampant. His utterance sparked tensions in Fort Sumter in Charleston and South Carolina since they went against the national Confederacy.

Another concern is whether slavery led to civil wars in America or not. It is believed that the civil war was sparked as a result of the desired interests of the southerners and the northerners (Hummel 3). For, instance, the southerner sparked civil wars with the views of safeguarding the institutional slavery, while other parts sparked wars with the view of protecting their civic and economic rights. There are two thematic concerns that emanated from the slavery and civil wars: human rights and slavery. The wars led to secessions over 6 states (Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana). The states wanted to secure their slavery freedom. Most of the slaves were grieving the economic exploitation, inappropriate military roles, and many more. Nevertheless, slavery caused very many effects on the civil wars. The slavery proclamations freed the slaves that were in the rebellious regions that were against the Federal government but not the slaves within the Union states. However, on 6th December 1865, after the civil wars were ended, the United States' Congress passed the law that abolished slavery.

Work Cited

Goodheart, Adam. "How slavery really ended in America." The New York Times Magazine (2011)

Hummel, Jeffrey. Emancipating slaves, enslaving free men: a history of the American civil war. Open court, 2013.