EXPLORING POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND LEGAL CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR (Research Paper Sample)

POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND LEGAL CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR
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The American Civil War of 1861-1865, also known as the war of the States, emerged as a result of the entanglement between the Northern and Southern States. The war had devastating effects on most regions within the South, however, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania suffered the most casualty with an estimated 51,000 men killed, and scores injured or reported missing.The fighting was spiked by long-standing differences regarding slavery between the United States and the Confederate States of America, comprising eleven southern states. The war also sought to resolve two central problems left unaddressed by the revolutionary war: whether the U.S. was to be a single nation of sovereign states; and whether a nation found upon equal rights to liberty would continue as the world's largest slaveholding country. Ideally, the American Civil War broke as a result of different in political, social and legal reasons. This paper discusses the interrelationship between these factors leading to the hostilities.[American Battlefield Trust. “10 facts: What everyone should know about the Civil War.” the American Battlefield Trust, last modified May 10, 2020, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-what-everyone-should-know-about-civil-war.] [Murray Jennifer. “The Civil War begins.” in Washington DC (Center for Military History, United States Army, 2012), 5.] [McPherson James. "A brief overview of the American Civil War." (American Battlefield Trust, 2020).]
Social Causes of the Civil War
As mentioned earlier, slavery was one of the greatest source of dispute between the Northern and the Southern States. Slavery was predominant in the confederates where a majority served as servants, farm laborers and artisans. In the advent of the Civil War, America had long grappled with challenge of slavery for almost a century. The struggle against odd institution occurred in three phases. The first marked by criticism of the tradition in territory ceded by the Union, the second stage when slavery remained dominant in the western union, and the final phase of the battle between pro-slavery resurgent groups and the “free soil” movement in the north[American Battlefield Trust.] [Adam Rothman. 2009. "Slavery and national expansion in the United States." Oxford Journals 23, no. 2 (2009), 25.]
Humanitarian revolution in the North, by the anti-slavery groups, also play a significant role towards to Civil War. In the course of slavery, the southern states developed strict laws and appalling ordinances that guided the practice. In many cases, the slaves disputed these ordinances which they deemed subjective. For instance, the fugitive slave clause required that a slave under service or labor within state, who fled, and captured in a different state, would be return to his state of origin to continue his service as a slave. The constitution of the United States also considered slaves as property of their masters, holding no right to free movement and self-worth in decision-making contrary to the expectations of their masters.[Baker, Robert H. 2012. "The fugitive slave clause and the Antebellum Constitution." Law and History Review 30, no. 4 (2012), 145.] [Dred Scott v. Sandforf. 1857. 360 U.S. 393 (Supreme Court of the United States, March 6).]
The freed slaves in the North were conscripted into the army, and given land to settle sparking outcry from the southern residents who felt the new acclaimed status of these, previously, savants would threaten their authority and sovereignty. The slaveholders from the south had continually pressured the president not to free enslaved people. Therefore, the southerners took arm to free their states from the Union, which they perceived affected their sovereignty.[Michael Robinson D. "A union indivisible: Succession and the politics of slavery in the border south." The Journal of American History 105, no. 4 (2017), 1027.]
Political Reasons for the American Civil War
Secession movements in the South were common themes in the events leading to 1861 outbreak of the Civil War. The onslaught demanded the withdrawal of eleven southern states (confederates), in which slave holding was legal, from the Union. These states included Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida.Secession movement began following the declaration of independence, and Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. Protagonists of secession found philosophical reasons where the constitution mandated that states could secede from the Union in the similar fashion they acceded.[Chacon, Mario, and Jeffery L Jensen. 2016. The political and economic geography of Southern Secession. New York: SSRN.] [Hasseler Warren and Jennifer L Weber. "American Civil War." Britannica, last modified August 14, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Civil-War.]
When he took oath of office, President Lincoln proclaimed that he did not intend to abolish slavery in the states that practiced it, and promised the southerners the government non-interference in their internal affairs, to govern by popular sovereignty. As it emerged later, the popular sovereignty, promised by the president, was a blatant lie. Numerous atrocities were committed against the slaves in the south and calls made by anti-slavery northerners, prompted the Union’s interference in the affairs of the southern states, and in many occasions, moved in to free slaves, thereby shattering the promise made by the president at the inauguration.[Murray, 8.] [Nicole Erchson, "A living, creeping lie" Abraham Linclon on popular soverignty." Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 29, no.2 (2008), 10.]
Pro-secession ideologies were spiked by political reasons that required the abolition of slavery. Southern slaveholders in the south were against the freeing of slaves as they entirely depended on such workers to drive various aspects of economic activities. The White non-slaveholding societies remained opposed to the secession politics and many opted not to fight for the preservation of slavery, which was a source of degradation of what the Union stood for. For instance, the non-slaveholding population in West Virginia strongly opposed secession, and when the rest of the state forced it upon them, they demanded succession from the state as well. These conflicts fueled the Civil War, with different parities demanding diverse claims based on varied beliefs.[Paquin, Jonathan. The United States, Secessionist Movements, and S