The Civil War And Slavery In America

The Civil War was one of the worst events to happen in the United States, it created separation between people and caused so many to die from fighting for what they believed was right, depending on if they were fighting for the Union or the Confederacy. After the war ended and the Union won, America would never be the same again and the south would have a long way to go to recover from the disasters of the war. In this essay I will explain how the Civil War and other instances leading up to it caused such a drastic change in American society and the Federal Government.

In the early years of the United States establishment up until around the 1850’s, slavery in America was widely accepted by most people. Although the south is where it was mainly prominent because of the large plantations and labor needed to farm them, there was not much of an issue with the notion of slavery. It was established in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that slavery was prohibited north of the border of Missouri as the government wanted to keep a balance between the North and South. But, with the small civil war known as the Bleeding of Kansas in 1854 through 1859, which caused proslavery and antislavery advocates to fight over the control of the new territory of Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty. New settlers in the North formed armed associations establishing for the new territory to be slave free while proslavery advocates moved from the Missouri border into the new territory. The only thing that prevented the violence was the Governor at the time in the Wakarusa War, which started from the murder of an antislavery settler. The two factions spread along the border each fighting battles, capturing towns and setting prisoners free. It wasn’t until 1961 that Kansas was admitted into America as a free state. “Bleeding Kansas” was one of the leading causes that led to the newly formed republican party’s need to address the antislavery issue in the Presidential election of 1860.

During the war the souths main focus was trying to win and set in its way of proslavery, and although the union was occupied with fighting the confederacy, the north still continued to grow with industrialization, the building of railroads, and communications capabilities. After the war, the north continued to grow in industrialization, because of the principles of Laissez Faire and government non-interference, this allowed for businesses to operate without regulation. With the expansion of business and urbanization, this caused a large number of workers to turn the cities for jobs. Meanwhile the south was still trying to recover from the loss of the war by offering and selling to freed slaves the promise of land and opportunity.

Another significant change that the civil war helped create was the currency. To help pay for the war, the government went from the gold standard to printing green bills for the first time. With this new standing of currency needing to be made, the government turned to women to work on producing the new money. This change is what caused the federal government to remake itself into a national, wartime force. It gave the government the ability to sell bonds for the first time and the first national banking system was approved.

In conclusion, although the civil war is a piece of American history that many American’s are not proud of, it caused the United States to go through a much-needed change in government and society that encouraged many of the modern America we have today.