As I sat thinking about what to write about i started to realize thatslavery and war were the two things that at leat keep me going and I knew icould say alot on both. I couldn’t quite figgure out how i was going to jointhe two until i did some research and other reading and started to rememberthe civil war and it’s purposes. I not one to into history but i came acrosssome very interesting information which i felt could bring my points ofview out quite effectively. So here it is my feelings and viewpoints onSlavery during, within, and after the civil war.
The Civil War was doubly tragic because it was completelyunnecessary. Slavery had been ended in other nations with the stroke of apen, and yet in the mighty United States the country was willing to go towar over the issue of whether slavery should remain. The southerners feltthat it was their constitutional right to own slaves and did not see a timewhen they should be required to give up that right. However, upon theelection of Lincoln as President, the southerners felt threatened, and felttheir slave holding rights were being threatened, and in an effort to protectthese rights they chose to secede from the union. Why would any oneperson want to own another human being with the same intestines, some ofthe same feelings yet a different color for their own good .
This was quitecrazy if you ask me , I feel that the southerners should have felt threatenedand that if what they were doing were so right why feel so threatened aboutdoing it. The northerners and Lincoln saw the importance of maintaining a united country, set out to bring back the seceded states. Thus the Civil Warbegan. During the civil war many Americans were either killed or wounded,this number was only surpassed by World War II. While the civil waroriginally began as a quest to bring the southern states back to the union. However, the goal of the war did soon change to that of abolition.
While thewar may have seemed necessary to the soldiers and governments who wereparticipating, in retrospect it was unnecessary. In three separate Europeancountries, slavery had been abolished prior to the American Civil War, andeach without arms being raised. Slavery had been abolished in Britain in1838, Sweden in 1848, and in Holland in 1863. It indeed could havesimilarly been abolished in the United States. However, the southerners,who were dependent on the slave institution, refused to give up their right toown slaves easily. Had the South been more progressively thinking manylives would have been saved and blood need not have been shed in the nameof slavery.
This is particularly true because if the south had given up theirright to free labor (slavery), they would have soon received the gift ofmechanical labor. Indeed they might have profited more from the use of themachines which were soon to be invented, as they did not require housing,and food. However, the southerners were deeply rooted in their institutionof slavery and were prepared to go to war over their feelings. Did it evercome to mind that the slaves were to willing to got o war over their ownfreedom.
If one were to ask that question then that would have been a war too unforgotten. Duuring this war the battlefields were transformed intoshambles where during the duration of the war 634,703 union soldiers werekilled or wounded, and 335,524 confederate soldiers were killed orwounded. Indeed this was the second most intense war second to WorldWar II. In the civil war 3,846 soldiers from both the union army and theconfederate army were killed per month of fighting.
This clearly shows theintensity of the battle and the strong will which drove both sides to continuefighting in the face of such catastrophe. The financial burden endured byboth sides was astronomical for the time period. The union force spent acombined 3. 2 billion dollars which in terms of current currency values is27. 3 billion dollars.
The confederacy spent two billion or 17. 1 billiondollars. This is the price both sides were willing to pay in the name ofslavery. The North and South went to war over the issue of slavery andendured a great expense in terms of human lives, and money. They couldhowever have followed the example of Britain, Sweden, and Holland andsimply signed away the institution of slavery and saved thousands of lives,and billions in dollars.
However, the south was too deeply rooted in theinstitution of slavery, and when the Emancipation Proclamation came whichfreed the slaves they still treated them as they did before, often outside ofthe legal limits. Even after the 14th amendment which legally made peopleof color American citizens, there were strong racial and prejudicial feelingswhich ran rampant in the south, for example the KKK, and Jim Crow Laws, and literacy tests for the right to vote. African Americans endured thesehardships for years and slavery still exixts in some way, form, or fashion outthere in the world today in the year 2001. Slavery was one of the numberone events in our country that was not a whole cause but part of a cause forwar in the united states. It also is a n event that has disgraced and put shameto the culture of african americans.
Even though not everyone owned slaves,one bad apple spoils the bunch. Hopefully people will learn from history,and immoral actions or events like slavery will not take place again. As Iconclude this paper I would just like to add taht I feel that alot of the thingsin the late 1700’s and early 1800’s could have truly been prevented ifpeople were willing to compromise. But it seems as if the stubborness of thepeople today is literally deeply rooted from the ones’ before us.
Do youthink the war were fighting now could lead to the financial burden and thenext recession as it did during the other wars fought in or country? I ask youthat because i’m quite unsure but I do know the world is supoosed to be abetter place and it is getting crazier and crazier by the minute like werestarting all over again.American History
