One of the pertinent issues that have always been debated among historians has always centered primarily on its cases. The effects have been debated, and these tend to bring a consensus view that the Civil war led to a massive change in the social, cultural and economic realms of the society. In other cases, however, there have been divergent views all trying to depict the possible causes of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln one of the senior personalities to have reflected on the causes of the Civil War took a very bold move by asserting that the cause of the Civil War could not have been anything other than the pertinent issue of slavery. Senator William Seward gave the second perception on what could have led to the Civil war asserts that “interested or fanatical agitators” contributed a great deal to the emergence of the Civil war. This view certainly depicts what some historians have perceived as the theory under which the Civil war can be termed as largely unnecessary.
However, As much as it was unnecessary, and influenced significantly by fanatical agitators, then does it mean that the systems were too weak to control the influence of these fanatical groups? The economic disparities between the Northerners and the Southerners have also been advocated as a major influence of the Civil war. Surprisingly, this argument does not offer a concrete stand since the same groups had sought to ensure the survival of the Federal sate in order to control the labor market to their favor. The issue of the fanatical agitators and the economic disparities of the Northerners and the Southerners do not clearly offer a substantial background upon which the causes of the Civil war can be understood. The cause of the civil war was necessitated by slavery which was seen, especially by the Northerners as an oppressive deed that did not only contravene the ‘humane’ nature of the society only to benefit a section of the society economically but also one that would ultimately alter their society structural setting.
As James Ford Rhodes explains in the Volume “History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 . . . (1893–1900)”, the only cause of the civil war was the irreconcilable moral differences between the Southerners and the Northerners regarding slaves. For the Southerners, slavery was a major driving force of the economy as it provided the cheap labor necessary to drive the industrial society. The Northerners, on the other hand, had many fears. On one hand, they through that the Southerners were too oppressive to the slaves and secondly, they perceived that at one time, slavery could gradually infiltrate into the North a position that would threaten the role of the white laborers. For the Northerners, this shift would largely compromise the structural setting of their society, and it was necessary to curb the spread by all means. At this point, the war was inevitable for the Northerners and for the Southerners they had to protect their interests by all means thus rendering the conflict “irreconcilable and unalterable”.
Industrialization of the northern states marked the onset of conflicts between the northerners and the southerners. As such the northerners started to advocate the abolition of slavery since they believed that slavery posed a great threat to the free white laborers. The northern economy mainly depended on industries and factories that were mechanized and therefore slaves were not of much importance to them. Additionally, the northern abolitionists believed in a free labor market, and this was their driving force towards championing for the end of slavery. On the other hand, slavery offered various benefits to the southerners since it was an agricultural economy and slaves provided the labor in their extensive cotton and rice plantations. Thus, the southerners believed that the abolition of slavery was an infringement of their rights to hold slaves by the northerners. This led to a tag of war between the northerners and the southerners that eventually resulted to the civil war. However, other factors such as the
On the other hand, various historians refute the fact that slavery was the underlying cause of the civil war and argued that other factors such as economic differences between the northerners and southerners fueled the war. This is because the northerners believed to be superior economically to the southerners. As such, they wanted to take control over the federal government as a way of empowering themselves economically, and this resulted to conflicts between the two sides that eventually resulted to war. Additionally, political differences led to conflicts between opposing sides especially due to party breakups that contributed to the rise of the war. However, some historians believe that the war could have been averted if the leaders had skillfully intervened by solving the political differences and containing conflicts.
A partial agreement with Randall’s assertion in “The Coming of the Civil War (1942)” offers a concrete view of how slavery influenced the Civil war. Randall is of the view that the war was in the first place unnecessary and blamed the weak leadership for the star of the war. On that first statement, Randall seems to be getting the point. However, he goes on to explain that the Southern slaves were not nay worse than the Northern slaves. On this too, there is an agreement that there was widespread exploitation of slaves in all regions. The next view of Randall is that since these slaves experienced similar conditions on all regions, then slavery could not be regarded as the primary factor. This is essentially a partial view of the situation. For the Northerners the fear was built not on the morality of slavery or exploitation, but rather the paradigm shift in society structures in the case where the Northerners would gradually reject the white laborers for the outsourced slaves. The methodology of disposing of the white labors would presumably be met with more agitation that would be disastrous. Thus, to curb such an incident, there was a need to bring into play all mechanism that would put the Southerners under pressure to abandon slavery.
The society, even today is built on competing interests with great infighting among these societies each in a bid to protect its structure on economical, social and political levels. The issue of climate change, for instance, has generated mixed reviews from the major economies in the world. They all seek to find a truce that will help avert the possible consequences of climate change into the future. However, the level of mistrust and the perception that one nation is seeking to oust the other on the production market have always led to unending blame games on who is most responsible. In the same way, the causes of the civil war remains only but a debate but deep within it is the fact that the different views on slavery, not on morality but on benefits, had a primary influence on the civil war.
Works Cited
Brinkley, A., Current, R. N., Freidel, F., & Williams, T. H. (1991). American history: A survey. McGraw-Hill.
Zinn, H. A people's history of the United States: 1492-2001. N.p., 2003. Print.
