THE CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR
"The tragic 'fireball in the night' imagined by Jefferson had finally rung. The Missouri Compromise had failed. Proslavery and antislavery civilians clashed in the streets and took up arms. Thousands of Northerners were willing to die for their beliefs. The Civil War had begun. The states were at war with each other." This dividing battle between the North and the South was unavoidable. The Civil War was caused by economic, political and moral problems. It all started by an alarming increase in a need for cotton, which triggered the building of a barrier between two territories in a growing New Machinery was changing the textile industry in New England and Britain. These mills needed more and more cotton, creating a new demand in the south. For this trade with Europe, after 1812, raw cotton accounted for one-third all cotton exports of the United States. By 1830, it increased to half. Cotton quickly became a big money-making cash crop for the South and North economy alike. But the demand also revived the need for slaves. The plantations had to be worked, and blacks were a cheap, efficient way to get
John Brown, a vengeful abolitionist put it best, "the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood". If they could form there own confederacy, the South could continue the use of slaves while also keeping their reign on the cotton industry. The South wanted to break away from the union, while the North still wanted the two territories to stick together. Popular sovereignty was also put into effect. The compromise also prohibited slavery in other American territories west of the Mississippi river and North of Missouri's southern boundary. It proposed to divide the area into two territories: that of Kansas and that of Nebraska. Together, they rendered the Missouri Compromise meaningless. They weren't willing to give up there slaves. Their concern lay in maintaining the plantation system as it existed. few white Southerners went to extremes. The barrier they had started to build so long ago finally crumbled. Even though the machine made attaining cotton faster, slaves were still pushed to work harder and produce more.
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