Cause of the Civil War essays

Cause of the Civil War essays The Civil War is commonly thought to have been caused by the idea or institution of slavery in the United States. Although slavery did play a part in leading to the Civil War, the true cause of the United States of America being divided into two separate entities was succession. More specifically the succession of the state of South Carolina from the Union. The succession of South Carolina, the catalyst which ignited the conflict of the Civil War, was brought of by two key factors, the southern nationalistic views and the strong leadership among the Cotton Kingdom1 which South Carolina possessed. Ten years prior to the Civil War the south, especially South Carolina, had a strong feeling of southern nationalism. This was of no surprise considering all of the influences and events of the time period, 1850. The historical meeting of the Nashville Convention, November 14, 1850, was of the largest importance dealing with this issue. Cheves launched an attack on Henry Clays Compromise of 1850, saying to the southerners, Unite, and you shall form one of the most splendid empires on which the sun ever shone, of the most homogeneous population...2. Cheves went even further, making a defensive attack on how the south should unite and further declined that the institution of slavery was not wrong or immoral, but in fact was apart of their culture and their society. Chevess speech at the convention was not the only topic that brought together and connected the people of the Palmetto State3 and the rest of the south, but the tariff and nullification episode between 1827 and 1833 also gave the southerners a feeling of nationalism to their part of the country. The tariffs gave the south such a disadvantage to the north that they had no other choice but to band together. Cotton, the souths most lucrative and essential industry, price, ...had fallen from thirty cents a p...