The American Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The American Civil struggle - Essay ExampleAccording to the Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference, paginate 53, Long before the Civil War, the terms compass north and South had acquired fixed geographic and cultural proof for Americans. In 1767, cardinal English astronomers, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, completed a survey that marked what had been a contend boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. By the early nineteenth century, the line of demarcation had become more than significant closely free states were entirely north of the Mason-Dixon line (parts of Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and Ohio fell below it) and most slave states were entirely to the south of it. Although this remains to a large extent accurate, there were some deviations from it during the war.2 The ii sections of the United States, the North and the South, were very different geographically, economically, culturally and to a large part, politically. Yet they overlap many commonalities. both spoke the same English language. Both had gone through the Revolutionary War. Both groups were predominately Protestant. Both were fiercely independent. However, there were stark differences as well. Again, to quote from The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference, the regional differences were striking and had become the subject of frequent comment. The social diversity of New York and Pennsylvania contrasted with the ethnic homogeneity in most of the white south the religious practices of the Puritan in New England differed greatly from those of the Anglicans in Virginia. Some 1,200 miles separated Maine in the North from Florida in the South, but slavery could make the two sections appear worlds apart. The slave system in the South and the free labor capitalism of the North produced two distinct economic philosophies that shaded Americans views of those living on the opposite side of the Mason-Dixon Line.3 Some say that miss of understanding from either side bringd men to willing take up arms against each other, hitherto against family members. Many argue that cultural and political issues propelled the nation into civil war. Indeed they certainly had their part. Politically the North was predominately Republican while the South was predominately Democrat. But as Page Smith said in his book, essay by Fire, The civil war took place because the Southern states felt that they could no longer tolerate their location as members of the Union. (pg1)4 Smith goes on to discard any suggestion that economy, sectionalism or politics, had any legitimise influence on launching the bloodiest conflict in our nations history. He emphatically claims that the grounding of slavery and, more specifically, the determination of the North to limit it and the South to extend it were the exact and specific cause of the war. In determining whether or not the Civil War was repressible this question must be asked. Would there have been a Civil War if slavery had not existed in the United States? Stephen Oakes, in his The near Fury, speaks of a major issue regarding slaves and slave states which was current