Honors writing 1

America’s Second Revolution

Brent Springer

The Civil War is known as America’s second revolution because at the end of the war there was a major change in both the Northern states and Southern states but it also changed America as a country. The war was divided into two sides: the North who wanted to abolish slavery and the South who wanted to keep slavery. Economy, politics, and territories also played a role in the American Civil war.

When our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, it stated that all men are created equal but that was intended just for white people, and excluded every non-white race. Soon because of the Declaration, there would be a war for the equality of all men. The war would last 4 years but not before both would see their share of deaths. The North lost about 360,000 men and the South lost about 250,000 men.

The North wanted slaves to be equal to whites and not to have to work against their will for someone else. The North wanted everyone to be equal no matter what their skin color or ethnicity was. The North felt that they were fighting to not only preserve the Union but to keep alive the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution. After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on New Years' Day in 1862, many Union soldiers clearly saw an opportunity to eradicate slavery forever from the nation.

The south wanted to keep African Americans as slaves and not as equals. There are many reasons on why the South didn’t like the Northern states, there was a major economical difference between the two nations, the abolishment of slavery was a big one and the different territories of either slave states or Free states.

The South liked slavery for two reasons, one because they believed in white supremacy and also because slaves were the foundation of their whole economy because the South whole economical system were just large plantations that grew cotton, but the plantation owners needed slaves to pick the cotton. Plantation slaves in the 1800's were called field hands. Their jobs were to plant and pick cotton. Out of all the different kinds of slaves, field hands worked the longest. While in the North the main crop was wheat which was easily harvested by machines so there was not much need for workers or slaves.

The South were fighting not just to keep their slaves, they fought because they didn’t want the United States Government dictating how should live their lives. They felt that the US Government was not treating them fairly because they weren’t as industrialized as the Northern states. Congress taxed every product that the North made, the south wanted these items so every time that the South bought a product it would be taxed because of this the South’s economy really dropped. If congress hadn’t put so many taxes on the Northern states products the South wouldn’t have been so mad and willing to fight to make a change.

The South also wanted new territories to be known to the Union as slave states. The South wanted this because it was made to prevent any slaves from escaping into any free states. The North wanted the new territories to be free. Some people thought the new territories should have the right to vote whether they wanted to be free or slave. This was called State’s Rights. Later they both agreed to a compromise which was called the Compromise of 1850, which lasted for three years. In this compromise, fugitive slaves were ordered to return back to their owners.

The war began with the North fighting to free a race who was forced to work for people against their will. This was essentially a second Revolution because African Americans were starting standing up against their white oppressors and started to fight for their rights.

This is why I think that the Civil War was a second revolution. Thanks to the hard work, dedication and sacrifice of the north they were able to free African Americans from slavery. Still to this day the South thinks that they won the civil war. Thanks to that war the South’s economy has never fully recovered from their loss.

http://www.civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/slavery.htm

http://www.factasy.com/civil_war/node/2523