It is time to look deeply not into another battle of the Civil War, but to causes of the War itself. In the next several articles I will be looking at events that led to this terrible conflict that tore our nation. It is all too often thought that the Civil War was fought to end slavery, and that the North was against such an institution while the South fought to preserve it. As you will learn, this is hardly the case.
It can be argued, however, that the issue of slavery was a factor in many of the arguments and occurrences that led up to the 1860-61 secession movement. As time goes along, you will hopefully understand what I mean.
I will break the articles down by individual events that led up to the Civil War. Beginning with the Northwest Land Ordinance of 1787, I will look into the early acts of Congress that first brought the issue of slavery into the realm of politics. Included will be an interpretive look into the United States Constitution and how the founding fathers addressed the issue. I will then move on to events starting with the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the anti-slavery movement, the annexation of Texas and the Wilmot Proviso, and the Fugitive Slave Law and the Compromise of 1850. Moving on, we will look at the Kansas-Nebraska Act,"Bleeding Kansas," the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's Raid and the Christiana Riot, the issue of taxes and tariffs, and finally the secessionist movement.
Don't worry, it's not going to take as long as it seems. I will generally include two or three concepts in each article, and I will do my best to write at least bi-weekly in this series. I hope this topic will be as informative to you as it will be fun for me to explore.
Go To Page: 1
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Michael J. Swogger's American Civil War topic, please visit the Discussions page.