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Civil War
The Civil War was doubly tragic because it was completely
unnecessary. Slavery had been ended in other nations with
the stroke of a pen, and yet in the mighty United States the
country was willing to go to war over the issue of whether
slavery should remain. The southerners felt that it was
their constitutional right to own slaves and did not see a
time when they should be required to give up that right.
However, upon the election of Lincoln as President, the
southerners felt threatened, and felt their slave holding
rights were being threatened, and in an effort to protect
these rights they chose to secede from the union. The
northerners and Lincoln saw the importance of maintaining a
united country, set out to bring back the seceded states.
Thus the Civil War began. During the civil war many
Americans were either killed or wounded, this number was
only surpassed by World War II. While the civil war
originally began as a quest to bring the southern states
back to the union. However, the goal of the war did soon
change to that of abolition. While the war may have seemed
necessary to the soldiers and governments who were
participating, in retrospect it was unnecessary. In three
separate European countries, slavery had been abolished
prior to the American Civil War, and each without arms being
raised. Slavery had been abolished in Britain in 1838,
Sweden in 1848, and in Holland in 1863. It indeed could have
similarly been abolished in the United States. However, the
southerners, who were dependent on the slave institution,
refused to give up their right to own slaves easily. Had the
South been more progressively thinking many lives would have
been saved and blood need not have been shed in the name of
slavery. This is particularly true because if the south had
given up their right to free labor (slavery), they would
have soon received the gift of mechanical labor. Indeed they
might have profited more from the use of the machines which
were soon to be invented, as they did not require housing,
and food. However, the southerners were deeply rooted in
their institution of slavery and were prepared to go to war
over their feelings. During this war the battle fields were
transformed into shambles where during the duration of the
war 634,703 union soldiers were killed or wounded, and
335,524 confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. Indeed
this was the second most intense war second to World War II.
In the civil war 3,846 soldiers from both the union army and
the confederate army were killed per month of fighting. This
clearly shows the intensity of the battle and the strong
will which drove both sides to continue fighting in the face
of such catastrophe. The financial burden endured by both
sides was astronomical for the time period. The union force
spent a combined 3.2 billion dollars which in terms of
current currency values is 27.3 billion dollars. The
confederacy spent two billion or 17.1 billion dollars. This
is the price both sides were willing to pay in the name of
slavery. The North and South went to war over the issue of
slavery and endured a great expense in terms of human lives,
and money. They could however have followed the example of
Britain, Sweden, and Holland and simply signed away the
institution of slavery and saved thousands of lives, and
billions in dollars. However, the south was too deeply
rooted in the institution of slavery, and when the
Emancipation Proclamation came which freed the slaves they
still treated them as they did before, often outside of the
legal limits. Even after the 14th amendment which legally
made people of color American citizens, there were strong
racial and prejudicial feelings which ran rampant in the
south, for example the KKK, and Jim Crow Laws, and literacy
tests for the right to vote. African Americans endured these
hardships for years to come, indeed until the civil rights
movement in the 20th century.
Word Count: 672
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