Brief outline on Origins of the American Civil War

It was most significant in the six southern states stretching from Maryland to Georgia, a total of 500,000 slaves were dispersed throughout the thirteen colonies. This number includes those who were born into slavery. In the South, slaves made up forty percent of the population, and as Americans moved into Kentucky and the rest of the southwest, one sixth of the settlers were slaves. In the South, slaves made up forty percent of the population. At the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War, the states of New England supplied the majority of the American ships that were utilised in the domestic and international slave trade, while the states of Georgia and the Carolinas provided the majority of their clients. 

American Civil War

Many people in the United States believed that the problem of slavery had been solved after the trade in African slaves was made illegal on January 1, 1808. The years of trade embargoes, maritime competition with Great Britain and France, and finally the War of 1812 were enough to drown out any national discussion that might have continued over slavery. The New Englanders’ association of their frustration with the war with their resentment of the three-fifths clause, which seemed to allow the South to dominate national politics, was the one exception to the general silence that prevailed regarding slavery during this time. 

The American Revolution took place between the years 1775 and 1783, and its aftermath saw the abolition of slavery in the Northern states by the year 1804. This occurred north of the Mason–Dixon line, which divided Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. However, in some states, older slaves were converted into indentured servants, who could not be bought or sold. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, passed by Congress while it was still operating under the Articles of Confederation, prohibited the institution of slavery in the territory of the Midwest located north of the Ohio River. When the territories that had been acquired through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 were being organised by Congress, there was no prohibition on slavery. 

Missouri Compromise

Main article: Missouri Compromise

When Congressman James Tallmadge Jr. of New York proposed two amendments to a bill in 1819 that would have admitted Missouri into the Union as a free state, it caused an uproar in the South. The first amendment would have prohibited the movement of slaves to Missouri, and the second would have granted freedom at age 25 to all Missouri slaves born after the state was readmitted to the Union. [20] In 1819, when Alabama became the 11th slave state, the United States had a total of 11 slave states and 11 free states, each with an equal number of residents. The amendment proposed by Tallmadge would give the free states a majority in the Senate, while the admission of the new state of Missouri as a slave state would give the slave states a majority in the Senate.

The crisis in Missouri reawakened old fears that a powerful federal government could be a fatal threat to slavery in the South. These fears were rekindled as a result of the Missouri crisis. After the War of 1812, the Jeffersonian coalition that opposed the Federalist Party and brought together southern planters and northern farmers, mechanics, and artisans began to fall apart. This coalition was formed in response to the threat posed by the Federalist Party.  It was not until the crisis in Missouri that the people of the United States became aware of the political possibilities of a sectional attack on slavery, and it was not until the mass politics of the administration of Andrew Jackson that it became practical to organise around this issue. 

Crisis caused by Nullification

In the eyes of President Andrew Jackson, South Carolina’s efforts to overturn the tariffs that had been enacted in 1828 and 1832 were on par with treasonous acts.

Main article: Nullification crisis

The American System was a programme for rapid economic modernization that featured protective tariffs, internal improvements at federal expense, and a national bank. It was promoted in Congress by Henry Clay, who was a supporter of the War of 1812, and supported by many nationalists who were in favour of the war, such as John C. Calhoun. The objective was to foster the growth of American industry as well as international trade. This tax plan was doomed to cause strife in the South, which relied primarily on agriculture for its economy rather than iron, coal, or water power, which were all primarily located in the North.  It was claimed by Southerners that this action showed favouritism toward Northerners. 

Conclusion 

The study found that the opportunity-based explanation offered by James Fearon and David Latin in their article published in the 2003 issue of the American Political Science Review was the most influential explanation for the beginning of the civil war. The election of Abraham Lincoln as the 16th President of the United States in the year 1860 was the event that finally sparked the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States.