By Malte Gemmer, 27.02.2020
The first slave to have arrived in the United States landed in 1619, in Point Comfort, Virginia, near Jamestown. These were brought to the new land by Dutch traders to help out in the British colonies with labour, and were heavily relied on to help the colonies operate. This unpaid labour served the United States for another 246 years until the inevitable Civil War was won in 1865. The Civil War was the most bloody and unorthodox war in American history, with around 618,000 casualties, the Union (or the North) losing 360,000 and the Confederacy (or the South) losing 258,000 men. There were many events that lead up to the bloodbath; however, this essay will give the reader insight over the three main leading factors, the invention of the cotton gin, the controversial novel that left an entire country shocked, and the historical selection of the 16th president of the United States: Abraham Lincoln.
The invention of the cotton gin was a big factor in the cause of the Civil War. After its creation in 1793 by Eli Whitney, cotton farming was revolutionised. The invention of the cotton gin not only meant that picking cotton seeds from the fibre would be a lot quicker and more efficient, but it also meant that they would be able to decrease the amount of slaves working on the cotton. Slaves would not have to patiently pick seeds from the fibre, but instead one would have to turn a wheel, and another would take the processed cotton away. Now slave owners could assign more slaves into picking and growing cotton rather than processing it. The slave demand increased greatly in the south, and when it was stated that slaves were no longer allowed to be imported from Africa, slave owners began immensely ‘Breeding’ slaves. This was such a serious problem that, after the Louisiana purchase in 1803, 17 years later the U.S. congress had passed a law that “... admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state…” according to History.com. This fragile balance of free state and slave state was a largely debated topic, and should new members of the Union like Arkansas be a slave state or a free state? The south wanted it to be an equal balance, and felt threatened by the north.
When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1850 the north was shocked, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center says “...Stowe’s vivid characters and portrayal of their struggles opened reader’s eyes to the realities of slavery and the humanity of enslaved people…” This realisation furthered the gap between the north and the south, who already had delicate relations. Her book single handedly raised a lot of awareness amongst the Northerners. Whereas the Southerners felt under a lot of pressure, calling it a “pack of lies” and even going so far as to ban it, and putting on trial Samuel Green, a free man of color for owning a copy of it. They justified this by saying that blacks felt no pain when hit and couldn’t love, stating that living conditions for slaves were exaggerated. In return, Stowe published A key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which she showed the slave narratives she based her story off of. The Harriet beecher stowe center says that “When Stowe visited President Lincoln at the White House in 1862, he is reported to have said, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” This statement, regardless of its truth, testifies to Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s impact.``
The election of Abraham Lincoln as 16th president of the United States was also a leading factor in the American Civil war. The south thought that they elected an abolitionist for president, and thought that he was out to completely end slavery, however, if they payed atention to one of his speeches, they would know that he stated that he would keep slavery if it meant keeping the country together. Another reason why the south thought that Lincoln was going to abolish slavery was because of the Lincoln-Douglas debates for the United States senate in 1858, where Lincoln proclaimed that he thought that slavery was inhumane, and that it shouldn’t spread. The final reason for why the south were threatened by president Lincoln is, according to enotes.com he “...got the nomination from the anti-slavery Republican Party in 1860…”Although Lincoln won over most of the states, majority of the south were very keen on electing John C. Breckinridge, who supported slavery and according to digitalhistory.com “...He believed in secession as a right; however, at the time of the election, he disapproved of states exercising that right…” However Breckinridge was not the only candidate the southern states voted for. Texas, Kentucky, Virgina, and Tennessee voted for John Bell, who according to Wikipedia was “...one of the few southern politicians to oppose the expansion of slavery in the 1850s…” The south felt that president Lincoln was going to take away their slaves, who generated a lot of income, and a lot more since the invention of the cotton gin. Losing their slaves would be like Dubai losing its oil, or Nepal losing Mount Everest, who generates around 100 million dollars a year.
The Civil War was the bloodiest war in American history, and although nobody wanted it, it was inevitable. The South needed their slaves, and with the invention of the cotton gin their ‘unpaid workers’ made a ton of money. On the contrary the North wanted to stop slavery from spreading; however when push came to shove with the free state slave state rule the South felt under constant pressure and were intimadated by the North. This all on mind when president Lincoln was elected in 1860 the South were completely convinced that the Union was going to abolish slavery, feeling like there was no other option, they left the Union to form the Confederate States Of America (CSA) and electing Jefferson Davis as their president. With all of these unfortunate events having happened, on April 12th 1861 3,000 cannon shells were fired on Fort Sumter to start the deadliest war American history had ever witnessed.