Shaping the Nation

Author’s note; In this piece my main goal was to demonstrate that I can write arguments about different conflicts in history. I also worked on using a different type of vocabulary than I usually write with for a historical document feel.

Of the many contributing factors to the building of our nation, the Civil War, ranks highly among all of them. Although it was a major conflict within the country, the outcome was one that unified us more as a single democracy than before. The basic understanding of the Civil War is to know that the Northern and the Southern states disagreed on the concept of slavery and how it should be handled, but the disagreement deals with more than just different opinions; it deals with conflicts in the constitution and how different laws are interpreted.

The Southern states argued that to own slaves was a state right that they, as citizens of the United States, should be granted. Although the argument of states rights is a valid argument, it fails to address the bigger problem. In no way can slavery be displayed as positive, so the diverting argument of states rights was their way of changing the spotlight to the constitution and the laws that followed in the bill of rights.

The Northern states didn't only disagree with slavery because they weren't in dire need for slaves, but they couldn't agree with the decision of slavery in the South because it displayed unequal rights, and couldn't be viewed as anything else but morally wrong. Battling politically led them to a compromise of counting slaves as three fifths of a person, the South demanding more representation, and the North arguing that they were becoming less and less important in government due to the sheer number of slaves in the south. However the compromise didn't settle much with the Northern states or the slaves, and they were still unhappy with everything occurring in the south. This string of events is what led up to the Civil War and eventually the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.

From the bombing at Fort Sumter in 1861, and the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, to the final surrender by Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, the Civil War took a harsh toll on America. With over 800,000 deaths, the Civil War ranks higher in the death charts than both World Wars and Vietnam; but before any lives were lost at war, before the Southern States seceded from the union, before any legal protests were made, there was a free human being who by another man’s hand, undeservingly became a slave.