American History

The civil war is one of the many controversial events in America that have had a constant conflict with the democratic principles of freedom on which America is founded. Of the events leading on to this war, slavery played a key role as it was the basis for many of the differences between the states. Slavery began with the 1619s arrival of Africans as indentured servants in Virginia. In 1641, the Body of Liberties passed by the U.S legislature made servitude legal giving the white masters the capacity to buy and solely own slaves (Lawrence 169). The Americans notion of persecution and black peoples sin was used justify servitude. The rapid increase in demand for coffee, tobacco, sugar and cotton intensified the demand for slaves as source of cheap labor.  This demand led to a thriving Black Gold (slave) trade which prompted for the establishment of more stringent rules to govern slavery. For instance, according to the law then, blacks had no right for legal representation in any of the federal courts. The Dred Scot case, which was of great importance in the abolitionists movement activities, was ruled by the Supreme Court basing on this argument. This intensified the tension between the pro-slavery south and the anti-slavery north even more.

The U.S philosophical and political Manifest destiny belief played a key role expanding U.S territories through to Pacific Ocean region so as to accommodate the rapidly increasing population as well as furthering its interests in slavery. In 1820, U.S passed the Missouri compromise to define the free (north) and slave (south) states especially for their admission into the union. Later, the compromise of 1850 was formulated to establish more slavery laws as well as barring the trade in slaves in Washington, D.C (Lawrence 203).   This compromise led to the entrance of California (neither a free or slave state) into the union as a free state. However, the Fugitive Act passed alongside the compromise of 1850 enhanced slavery by allowing the slave states to reclaim their runaway slaves in the free sates. This Act promoted brutality on both free blacks and the slaves as bunky hunters got in the trade. The 1840s doctrine of popular sovereignty gave the settlers in the new territorial lands the capacity to determine whether these states would be free or slave states. This idea was popularized by the 1854s Stephen Douglas Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincolns 1860 election prompted the formation of a separate union-the Confederate States of America as a rebellion to Lincoln (Lawrence 245). This was due to slavery issues enhanced by leadership failure. Struggle for control over federal forts especially Fort Sumter initiated the civil war. Both the south and the north could have done better to avoid what became one of the bloodiest U.S wars. A number of laws such as the Fugitive Act could have been reviewed or avoided for the sake of unity.