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Civil War Dbq

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The American Civil War, known within the U.S. usually as only the Civil War, was a civil war that was waged from 1861 to 1865 to decide whether the United States remained intact, or if the Confederacy were to split off and secede to become independent of the Union, as well as their own nation. Among the few states that existed in the United States at the time, seven of the states decided to secede to become their own nation. They were unhappy at the time with the election of president Abraham Lincoln. Abraham was open about his distaste for slavery, and the southern states rebelled and made threats, saying that if the republican candidate Lincoln were to win the election of 1860, the southern states would secede to become their own nation. …show more content…

After the secession of South Carolina, the example set by their secession caused other states to secede as well. These states included the "Cotton States" of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. With the secession, the Cotton States were attempting to strong-arm the government into making slavery legal again. The Cotton States were very dependent upon slaves, because no machinery at the time could compare to the power of human work, and owning a slave came without the hassle of having to pay someone to do the work for you. They are also far more intelligent than any animal, making them very useful. The Cotton States argued that without slaves, the South would not be able to produce cotton as quickly and efficiently, making the prices of cotton and cotton products supplied by the south go up dramatically. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependant upon "King Cotton" that they would intervene. However, none did intervene, and nobody recognized the Confederate states …show more content…

Slaves could have many uses that could vary from things like common servants that help clean up the house, cotton pickers and field workers that tend to the crops and plants, or things like personal butlers and chefs, that could cook and serve food. Slaves were used to make life much easier, because having an extra set of hands to do work for you is always useful. Also, slave, unlike most people, would only stop doing their work if you told them to, because a slave that would not do the work they are told to do for as long as they are told to do is most certainly a dead slave. Slaves were the most popular in the South because the South had far more manual labor to be done in the fields than the North did. The South had a much warmer climate, making crops grow far better than in the North, where crops refuse to grow in the cold weather. More crops also mean there is more of a use for slaves, because crops needed to be picked and harvested, and a team of slaves that worked all day and were paid absolutely nothing was a far more smarter thing to have as opposed to a team of white men that would take breaks and have to be paid money for the work they've done. Slaves can also be bred to make children, who can then be either sold to people who might want them, or to pass down to the owner's children to have in the future. The South believed that they required slaves to keep the cotton industry

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