Question 1
It is true that the question of labor made the Civil War unavoidable in the United States in the early 19th century. The oppressive and discriminative labor policies created tension that prompted the emergence of Civil War. In essence, the early 19th century Civil War may be viewed as the struggle against slavery. The North and South adopted conflicting ideologies in respect to the labor. The North embraced the ideology of free labor while the South propagated the concept of slave labor. In this context, the South struggled much to maintain slavery, which essentially led to eruption of conflicts over the Western lands. The situation became worse with the election of the Abraham Lincoln. The South interpreted Lincoln’s election into power to mean a defeat of the idea of slave labor. The South believed that Lincoln’s government could promote the idea of free labor that they objected. The South resisted Lincoln’s governance to safeguard their labor interest. This resulted to a state where Lincoln could hardly maintain union of states. This situation led to the eruption of the civil war, as the two sides conflicted. For example, John Brown promoted violence and insurrection to challenge the evils of slavery. On the other hand, the South was highly motivated to fight for a state of slave labor to continue benefiting from the practice. For example, farming merchants from the South needed people to work in the cotton farms to cater for the high demand of cotton during this period. In consequence, these people objected the idea of free labor. In this respect, the question of labor made civil war unavoidable due to rivalry motivated by the slavery as the South struggled to maintain slavery while the North fought for adoption of the idea of free labor.
Question 2
Various events occurred after 1850 that directly resulted to the Civil War. Initially, there was the inclusion of the Fugitive Slave Act into the Missouri Compromise. This legislation imposed a fine to any federal official who failed to arrest a runaway slave. This prompted aggressive controversies in reference to the Missouri Compromise; thus, making many abolitionists aggravate their efforts against slavery. Another important event includes the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act that offered the Kansas and Nebraska territories of choosing whether they needed to be free or slave. Furthermore, the Dred Scott Case sparked the activities of the abolitionists, increasing their effort against slavery, as they were opposed to the position assumed by the court. The event of the “Bleeding Kansas” prompted the Civil War, as a large number of abolitionists moved to Kansas and established their own government in fear that the Kansas would be made a slave state. Other important events include the election of Lincoln, and John Brown attacks on Harper’s Ferry among others.
Political parties assumed a strategic role in the emergence and development of the Civil War. This is because they divided the population into two conflicting forces, the Democrats and the Republicans. In essence, the Republicans fought for the free labor while the Democrats fought for slave labor. It is fair to state that the Republicans caused the Civil War. Initially, the Republicans victory aggravated Civil War because of the assumption that Lincoln would practically attack slave labor. The Democrats criticized the Republicans for the sectional crisis. They argued that Republicans were planning to dodge the Constitutional ban against federal attacks on slavery. In essence, the Republicans focused on eradicating slave labor by abolishing it in various states and establishing free labor states. In this context, the Republicans can be linked with the emergence of Civil War because their idea of “cordon of freedom” led to inflammatory circles of fire that resulted to Civil War. The slave themselves understood the significance of Lincoln’s victory since they believed that his inauguration would result to a war that would lead to invasion of the South; thus, freeing them.
