Throughout history, people have stated their different reasons on why the Civil War started. Many of those reasons are true, but they all come back to one main point, slavery. Slavery had been in America since 1619 when the first African slaves arrived in Virginia. These slaves had no rights and were treated as property instead of people. This laid the foundation for a large industry that would not be stopped until 1865.
The region of the U.S that profited most from slavery was the south. Slaves were primarily used in the fields to help farm Cotton and Tobacco. Most of these slaves were treated unfair and were physically beaten. Eventually, people in the north came into realization that slavery was wrong. The south opposed their ideas strongly because slavery was their main source of income. Without slavery, the south believed their economy would decline and suffer.
The south was not the only one benefitting from slavery. Even though the north criticized the south for continuing to benefit from slavery, they also benefitted from it. The north used lots of cotton in their factories to make clothing etc. If cotton production stopped in the south, the north's economy would have probably declined too, However, the northern economy would not have declined nearly as much because the they had other goods to fall back on. Basically the people criticizing slavery in the north were being hypocrites, even though they were saying what was right. Europeans also benefitted from slavery. They could buy slave bonds which technically meant that they could buy stock in slaves.
Slavery could not be stopped or contained. Southerners wanted slavery to expand to new states in the west. This caused more uproar between the two sides. The Kansas-Nebraska Act (http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/kansas.htm) was signed by congress to decide on whether these states should be free or slave states. This way the people in those territories could decide their own fate. This act also repealed the Missouri Compromise. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters flooded into the two states to be able to vote. Eventually, Kansas became a free state of the Union.
All of this led to the Civil War, but it all comes back to slavery. Slavery was the main reason the Civil War started. If slavery would of never came to America, none of this would of happened. There would never of been two sides fighting and states seceding from the Union. Did slavery have a positive or negative effect on the United States? I think it had both. The negative effect was the mistreatment of fellow human beings. The positive effect was the economic boost. Does the positive effect out-weigh the negative.? If so, great! If not, slavery was not worth it.
I do think that slavery was essential to the building of America. It contributed greatly to our economy and without it, new settlers of America would not have been able to grow civilizations as fast as they did. Without all the goods produced by slaves, Americans could not of traded with other nations to start trade relationships that carry on today. So YES! I do think the positives of slavery outweigh the negatives.
Here is John Green talking about the Election of 1860 and how it contributed to the aboliton of slavery!
I used Skill 1: Historical Causation by telling how Slavery had an effect on the U.S, primarily the souther economy saying "Without slavery, the southern economy would decline and suffer. The northern economy would suffer but not as much because they had other goods to fall back on." I also used Skill 7: Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence by asking if the positive effects out-weighed the negative saying "The negative effect was the mistreatment of fellow human beings. The positive effect was the economic boost. Does the positive effect out-weigh the negative.? If so, great! If not, slavery was not worth it."
