The American Civil Wars
Introduction
The civil war was the deadliest conflict in the American history. Fought between 1861 and 1865, three million Americans participated in the wars that claimed the lives of over six hundred thousand people and chores incapacitated. A large number of people lost properties worth billions of dollars. In total, about two percent of the American population lost their lives during the civil wars. Despite many downfalls recorded in the history of the civil wars, many fruits were borne by it. The end of the war marked the end of slave trade and slavery that was formally prominent in the continent. Moreover, the war also ended the forces of states secession thereby and laid the foundations of the US development. Having seceded earlier before the commencement of the civil wars, the state of Florida faced a lot of military action during the civil wars (Rivers, 2000). Considerable military deprivations and tragedies were experienced in the state of Florida during the civil wars resulting into the death of over 5,000. This was because many of her soldiers fought away from home.
The events surrounding the commencements of the civil wars, the events that took place during the civil wars and the outcome of the same have attracted huge political and economic interest among various people. Among these are researchers, historians, and political scientists. A lot of publication has been made over the events that took center stage during the civil wars. While some people have seen numerous advances resulting due to the existence of the civil wars, other scholars have blamed the occurrence based on facts they cherish the most. Wynne & Robert, (2001) record that, at times, it is hard to understand how an event that has resulted into the loss of many lives would lead to anything good to the resident population. This fact is subject to serious debates considering the manner in which each debater argues. To some, especially proponents of slave abolition, the abolition of the slave trade after the end of the civil wars was a remarkable fact that would not go without mentioning. Still to other statesmen such as politicians and economists who gauge the state of economies by considering the size of the landmasses and the amount of resources housed by the states, the ending of rapid secession of the American states was of key contribution to the economic development of the region.
Moreover, commendable effects often go not without defaulters. Supporters of this idea are human rights activists who see wars as the prime causes of human rights violation, such as, mass killings. Whatever the results may be, the American civil wars were surrounded by both beneficial and retrogressive factors that have conventionally transpired to create the present face of the United States of America (Buker, 1993). Increased power and economic growth that has made America appreciated above all nations of the earth is a fruit borne to her by the civil wars. Indeed, some people have argued that the fruits of the civil wars are more compared to the downfalls associated with it. It is for this reason that the civil war stories have attracted the attention of a huge number of people from all over the globe compared to any other war that has ever occurred over the earth’s surface. In this paper, I have looked at the events encapsulating the American civil wars and the factors that underlie its commencement, sustainability and its ending. I have drawn numerous references to support my position regarding the claims I have raised in this paper making it suitable for informing decision making in various aspects and at various levels.
Mary, B. M. C. (1965). A Diary From Dixie: Electronic Edition. (D. M. Isabella, & L. A. Myrta, Eds.) New York: D. Appleton and Company.
Mary Chesnut is among the famous American writers whose publications have resonated quite well with the demands of various scholars across specialties. Among these are historians, political analysts, economists among others who find her writings to bear a lot of information on matters relevant to them. Chesnut has described into details the underlying issues surrounding the occurrence of the civil wars in America, from its commencement to the end. Being the wife to one of the most powerful men in America during the period of the civil wars, James Chesnut, Jr, the United States senator of the state of South Carolina, an aide to Jefferson and a Brigadier- General, she was positioned at a place where she could gunner numerous information concerning the events that took place during the civil wars (Mary, 1965). Chesnut’s diary is a landmark document that has sound illustrations of the events that took place during the periods of the civil wars. The accounts given in the diary have informed the works of other historians from the region and abroad.
Comparing the wars in the south and in the north, Chesnut has illustrated the events that took place during the civil wars. Unlike the war-torn south, the north was not subjected to acute destruction owing to abundant resources endowment, economic standards of the people and the government in place during this time. According to Chesnut’s descriptions, the war was more intense in the south compared to the north. It was rather difficult for the south to cease the fight due to the northern continued call for the abolition of slavery. Slavery earned the southerners much income. Discrimination on the southerners by the northern states and acute political differences between the two regions further fueled the wars. As a result of all these, Chesnut records that the southern nations continued to fight as long as they had any remaining soldiers that could fight. Buker, (1993: 45) descriptions hint that it was rather difficult for the civil wars to come to an end in the south compared to the north. Constant wars broke up in the south after quells by the northern states.
Chestnuts recantations record inflation as the number one effect that made most of the southern states to diminish economically. Both women and men took active parts in the civil wars. The southern farms were left unattended. Food prices rose to unimaginable levels. In fact, Chesnut, in her diary records that there reached a time when a piece of utensil which would go for as low as less than a dollar before the emergence of the civil wars would be purchased for as much as over one thousand dollars. She satirizes this aspect by noting that it reached a time in the south when one would carry his money in a wheelbarrow to the market and come back with his purchase in the pocket. These, amongst other effects such as mass killings, destruction of massive wealth and properties were among the numerous and torturous effects that ensued from the civil wars in America. Many post-war renovations had to be made, both on the countries economies and properties development (Driscoll, 2007: 11).
Among the key factors that led to the commencement of the civil wars according to the narrations of Chesnut, were differences in political ideologies and the war over slaves and slave trade. The south who was mainly composed of the blacks was supporting the democrats’ party. Their support stemmed from the fact that democratic ideologies favor liberalism. The republicans, on the other hand, were mainly conservatives (Brown, 2000). The ideologies held by the supporters of this school of thought were driven by precepts of racial discrimination and prejudice. They could not bear the face of a black man standing before them compared to the democrats who held a contrary opinion. Throughout, Chesnut’s accounts in her diary, the civil wars were fought due to differences in political ideologies.
Most of the slaves were settling in the south at a time when most of the Northern slave owners were repatriating their slaves back to their original lands. Contrary to the south, most slave owners did not release their slaves as cotton farming continued to boom in the region following the invention of the cotton gin. Large tracks of farms were cultivated and increasing number of slaves was required to tend them. The northern people had started adopting technological applications on their farms. Besides, a sense of liberality and avoidance of human rights abuse were quickly gaining roots in the north compared to the south. However, political ideologies on the support of the two major parties continued to split the two regions, north and south. Considerable number of advocates for slave abolition rose in the north compelling the southern slave owners to set their slaves free. With the coming of Abraham Lincoln into power on November 8th, 1860, many of the slaves felt they would be freed from slavery. This however did not happen following the assassination of Lincoln on December 27th, 1860 about one month after his election (Revels, 2004: 88). This spectacular occurrence threw America back into the quagmire of wars and murder thus reviving the almost cooling down civil wars in the region.
Chesnut ends his accounts by noting the double tragedies that surrounded the outcome of the civil wars. She describes the ending of the wars by describing the happenings in Bloomsbury, a series of happiness to some groups and sadness to another category. The state of Bloomsbury was plundered by soldiers, looted by fighters and properties destroyed. Economies of the regions were on their knees prompting the people to begin all over again. The Negroes started to escape away from their wounded masters. A route to their liberation was being charted, a path to the freedom of the Negroes in America (Taylor, 1995). The war had ended and to them it was comparable to a wedding banquet in a foreign land. Many of the Negroes who had been enslaved started settling down and owning lands, ready to begin a new phase of their lives. Eventually, the slave trade was abolished and many slave owners were sunken to absolute deprivation. Unable to recollect their lives all over again, two classes of sufferers were created. One comprised of the celebrating Negroes and the other class comprised of the white slave owners, a double tragedy, a wedding amidst a funeral. Finally, the bloodshed did not go all in vain. There was something to celebrate in the end.
University South Caroliniana Society newsletter. (FALL, 2011). Mary Chesnut’s Illustrated Diary (Mulberry Edition ed.). University of South Carolina Press.
The accounts of Mary Chesnut, as recounted by the University of South Carolina provide an illustration of the events that took place during the period of the civil wars as witnessed by Mary Chesnut herself. Beginning the write her stories in 1861, after the commencement of the wars to the end of the war in 1965, Mary gives an account of the various events that took center stage at the time. The events have been illustrated using the photographs attained from the museum bearing the picture so of the events that took place during the period of the wars. This happens one hundred and fifty years after the death of Chesnut (University South Caroliniana Society newsletter. (FALL, 2011). Developed from the photographs that were taken during the civil war period, the South Carolina University Museum was able to reconstruct the events that took place during the period of the war. Even though the accounts illustrate here do not specify the prime causes of the wars hovered throughout the American continent, they show valid illustrations of the various atrocities that were committed by the war machineries during the war.
Mass Killings formed the central theme of the narrations developed in this piece. The end results were destruction of large amounts of properties worth billions of dollars, migration of many people, among them slaves and the wounded soldiers who survived the wars was also given utter importance in the piece. Besides, the accounts presented here also give comparative illustrations of the present and former states that were rocked by the wars. The development phases and geopolitical trends illustrated on well referenced geopolitical maps show increasing harmony over time. Migration patterns of the people and commodities ensure a promising development trend over time. The effects of the war as Buker, (1993) records have realigned the political sphere of the regions, which were once in tremendous wars.
Florida Humanities Council. (2010). The Civil War: When Florida “Opened Up the Gates of Hell.”. The Magazine of the Florida Humanities Council , 34 (1).
This article gives the account on issues behind the eruption of the civil wars in America. The article has investigated the aspects of colonialism, nationality, nationalism and nationism with respect to the occurrence of tensions and even wars in various parts of the world. He defines a nation as a group of people holding same political ideologies, similar religious beliefs as well as cultural orientations. Nationalism, on the other hand, is defined by Florida Humanities Council, (2010: 44) as the owing of personal and regional allegiance to the ruling power in a given region. This only happens when the forces of nationalism are stronger among the nationals than the forces of nationism. In order to distinguish the two aspects and gain a deeper understanding of the underlying issues surrounding the presence of such conditions, Florida Humanities Council, (2010: 42) make an attempt to distinguish between nationism and nationalism. He refers to a nation as a people and the state as the landscape upon which the nations live, the ruling political ideologies and existing policy frameworks that control the operations of all nations residing in the region.
Driscoll, J. K. (2007). The Civil War on Pensacola Bay, 1861-1862 . Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company,Inc.
Driscoll has addressed issues relating to statesmanship, nationalism and nationism according to Driscoll, (2007: 33) have a considerably great influence in the manner in which people conduct their activities in the region. For a state to stand united and speak in one accord, the spirit of nationalism must be stronger than that of the nations from where each individual comes. As Driscoll, (2007: 21) mentions, America, at the time of the civil wars had as many nations as the number of races and tribes that were represented within its landscape. The spirit of nationalism is strengthened when the various nations within the region share same political ideologies as well as religious beliefs. The two factors play a very important role in determining the stability of a nation. Politics, for instance, is a very common divisive factor and a major cause of instability. It is due to differences in political ideologies and well as ideologies on social livelihoods that led to the eruption of the civil wars in America. The differences in political ideologies held by the south and the northern nations as Driscoll, (2007:20) records caused many instabilities in the two regions eventually resulting into the wars experienced in the continent between 1860 and 1865.
Pearce, G. F. (2000). Pensacola During the Civil War: A Thorn in the Side of the Confederacy. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Pearce’s ideas closely relates to those of Driscoll. He looks at how differences in political ideologies influence civil wars. The south being composed of mainly democrats held a different political affiliation from the northern regions, which were mainly composed of republicans. This difference in political affiliations led to the rise in rebellions between the northern states and the southern states eventually leading to the eruption of the civil wars. The differences in political affiliations and social beliefs led to the rise in the spirits of nationism than that of the nationalism among the various races residing the region during the moment (Pearce, 2000). As a result, people listened best to the voices that spoke for their respective nations than the overall voice of the nation. The division caused among the American citizens’ along racial lines was a major contributing factor to the eruption of the civil wars. The democrats believed in liberality compared to the republicans that were majorly conservatives hence the differences in ideological beliefs.
Wynne, L. N., & Robert, A. T. (2001). Florida in the Civil War. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.
Wynne and Robert have looked at yet another factor that has come out loudly about the eruption of the civil wars. They cite that slavery, which was rapidly gaining root during the time compared to the past periods. The aspect of slavery and its influence on civil wars have been hotly debated by various groups of academicians for decades. Some scholars have argued that slavery was the prime cause of early raptures as well as the present revolutionary movements being experienced between the blacks and the whites. Arguments in support of this idea include those of Wynne & Robert, (2001) who have argued that the enslavement of Africans by the whites was a dire violation of the laws of nature as well as the laws of the states from which the slaves were drawn. These arguments came up at a time when human rights activism had not grown to the stronger levels they are in today. Those who advocated the abolition of the slave trade argued that the act was wrong in principle, socially unacceptable, morally bent and politically unfavorable. In some states especially the southern states, the black were not allowed to even participate in elections on the basis of their slavery.
Taylor, R. A. (1995). Rebel Storehouse: Florida in the Confederate Economy. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
Taylor has focused upon the ideological differences between the political classes as central to the causes of the civil wars. Alexander H. Stephens, reaffirming the position of the republicans based on their ideological and constitutional beliefs brought out the facts very clear on March 21, 1861. He asserted that the US government was founded not on the grounds of liberality and equality but on the exact opposite basis. According Taylor, the cornerstone of the American constitution and government rests upon the foundations of truth, that the Negro is not equal to a white man, and that slavery, an act of subordination to the superior race, is the natural and superior condition that he referred to as the truth upon which their constitution was embedded. Relating to his assertions, Taylor, (1995: 71) notes that slavery was a natural and common condition upon which the white had to subject their inferior Africans. Today, most historians have come to a conclusive agreement with the assertions made by Stephens that slavery was the prime factor that saw America go through the civil wars between 1961 and 1965. The main intention of the northern states behind their going into war was preservation as opposed to emancipation. For the over 200, 000 blacks who fought for the Americans during the civil wars, their main aim was emancipation. The emancipation was not to come easy without shedding of blood and the feeling of pain.
Buker, G. (1993). Blockaders, Refugees & Contrabands: Civil War on Florida’s Gulf Coast, 1861-1865. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
Arguments have been developed into the real causes of the civil wars right from historical antiquity. According to Buker (1993: 133), the spirits that influenced the development of the civil wars did not just begin in the 1860s over three centuries before this time. As he notes, the European settlers that ruled most parts of the African continent at around 1500s brought along the practice of slavery to the western hemisphere due to inability to find good and cheap labor in America. They then turned to slaves who were brought from Africa to work their farms in America. At around early 1700, the act of slavery actually meant African slavery and, a fact that only continued to create rifts between the whites and the blacks all over the globe. Most of the southerners utilized slave labor on their farms as they produced large amounts of tobacco, rice and cotton. The northerners, on the other hand, traded on slaves, being the prime source of slaves to their southern counterparts. It was through slave trade that most of the northern merchants generated their fortunes while the southerners were the real recipients and users of the slaves sold into their lands. As a result of this movement, most of the slaves were accumulated in the southern parts of the American continent while the northern parts acted as through ways along which they found their ways into the southern states.
Despite the existence of slavery in all the thirteen American colonies up to the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775, most Americans, especially those with the African origins found a discord in the declaration of independence in the region amidst the existence of slavery and slave trade. In a reaction to this upcoming realization of the discord in the declaration of American independence, the northerners decided to call an end to slavery without the interest of the southerners, who were the main beneficiaries of the slaves’ labor (Buker, 1993: 131). The northern states felt that their call for the abolition of slavery within the continent without taking into consideration the interest of the main beneficiaries of slavery, the southerners would result into the withdrawal of most southern states from the American union.
Revels, T. J. (2004). Grander in Her Daughters: Florida’s Women During the Civil War. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
Revels has looked at yet an additional factor that another factor falling among the key drivers to the existence of the American civil wars of the tax regimes and trends that were somehow unbalanced between the south and the northern states. The interests of the southerners were, therefore, catered for during the making of the American constitution in 1787. This implementation led to the creation of the 3/5 clause warranting the southern nations to maintain their interests in slavery and continue to accrue the benefits they gained from slavery. Still the agreements on the state of slaves and slavery did not resonate well with both the southerners and the northerners plunging them into war. The application of the state of Missouri to be recognized as a slave state at a time when the number of slave states and Free states was 11 each Revels, (2004: 43). This would unbalance the power in the senate with the slave states having the majority. Most of the northern states were not comfortable with this move which consequently led to the rebellion of the southern states. Most of the northern abolitionists felt the southern rebellion was unjust and needed to be taught a lesson hence the civil wars
The tax, called tariffs, levied on all the goods imported into the country from foreign nations (Florida Humanities Council, 2010). Most of the southern businessmen and merchants felt that the tariffs were unfair and meant only to favor the northerners while imposing huge burdens on the southern traders. Arguing along this line, the southerners felt that the tariffs were targeted primarily at them since they imported a wider variety of goods compared to the northerners. As a result, they consequently played huge amounts of money on taxation when compared to their northern counterparts.
Winsboro, I. D. (2007). Florida’s Civil War: Explorations into Conflict, Interpretations and Memory. Cocoa, FL: The Florida Historical Society Press.
Winsboro, (2007: 245) investigations into the causes of the American civil wars addresses tax issues in relation to slavery and disagreements on power representation between the northern and southern states. According to Winsboro (2007: 244), the tax issues could be seen as one of the fueling factors for the uprising against the slavery agreements. While most southerners were, at this time, chiefly importing their slaves from the northern states, who were at the same time rapidly joining the abolitionists’ movements, most of the southern merchants felt that their chief sources of livelihood, slave labor would be interfered with. The flow of slaves into the southern states would be halted by these abolitionists’ movements from the north. This argument as Winsboro, (2007: 240) argues was deeply engrossed on certain hidden tussles on tax remittances from the south. Most of the southerners felt it nonsensical to remit the highest tariffs, hence having the highest contributions to the region’s income levels, while at the same time blocked by their northern dependants from actualizing their livelihood dreams. Based on Revels, (2004: 234) arguments above, the arguments on tariff levies were not purely genuine but rather pegged upon certain hidden bitter feelings of biases that the southern merchants had upon their northern counterparts.
Rivers, L. E. (2000). Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida
Rivers looks at the effects taxation on imported goods as the capital cause of the civil wars in America. According to Him, besides the huge taxes imposed on the southern imported goods, many of their exports were also heavily taxed. The southern states were producing and exporting a wide array of commodities, mainly agricultural products, compared to the northerners. The taxes on their goods, therefore, had to be higher than that of their northern counterparts. Based on the fact that the northerners only imported and exported few commodities from and to the outside market, the southerners felt that they were remitting much to the government than their northern counterparts. The rebellion of the southern nations, therefore, started as a result of these disagreements and ill feelings. They felt that the huge chunk of the trade tariffs was imposed on them at the expense of the northern states and therefore felt the need to retrogress in tax remittance to the government. It is during this time that many southern nations threatened to secede from the American union (Rivers, 2000: 77).
The quests for secession by the southern states did not resonate well with the northerners, especially the government of Abraham Lincoln. Calls for reunion could not be attained hence the resultant civil wars, mainly between the southerners and the northerners. Powerful figures, such as Abraham Lincoln were noted as the key figures that played a very great role in the liberation of the slaves and the American states while at the same time maintaining the union of the American kingdom under his leadership. He insisted during his inaugural speech that Americans need not be enemies. He calls for the end to secessions was exact and stern until his death, a few months after his election. Most of the southern statesmen and merchants were not pleased with his ruling mechanisms and the call for the abolition of slavery within the American continent. It is for these reasons that people like Abraham Lincoln and Douglas are considered true statesmen with the spirit of the state in their minds.
Brown, C. J. (2000). Tampa in Civil War and Reconstruction. Tampa, FL: University of Tampa Press
Brown has greatly detailed the various effects on the aftermath of the civil wars. He records that numerous effects were felt at the end of the civil wars in America. Despite the phenomenon taking place only for five years, the results were devastating. Economic ruin is considered central to the existence of the civil wars. Both the southern, as well as the northern economies, were brought to their knees. A lot of the historical literature has addressed the economic impact of the American civil wars as the central effect. Specifically, the effects of the wars on industrialization and wealth distribution in the American regions have been debated far and wide including the writings of Brown, (2000:42) and Driscoll, 2007: 37). Even though, it has been very difficult to measure the source of any war, some scholars have tried to estimate the overall economic loss on the war on the American states. Brown (2000: 36), notes that if a war involves an economy only to an extent of providing men and machines, then the effects can be easily estimated. Besides, if the war goes further to involve the destruction of the productive capital bases, creating political instability and even changing the composition of the labor force, then, further complications have to be incorporated in the estimation procedures.
Huge loss can be addressed concerning the impacts of economic impacts of the American civil wars. Not only, the existing capital bases were destroyed, but also the potential sources of capital in both the north as well as the southern states. Many of the American soldiers in combat during the civil wars were the resident African slaves. The slaves, as Driscoll, (2007: 27) records were a huge capital not only to the southerners, who used them directly on their farms, but also to the northerners, who traded them as chief commodities. A huge group of slave soldiers were anguished at the Sunken Road, also known as the Blood Lane by the end of the civil wars. Most of the southern farms were left unattended to as the slaves were used in the battles. The death of the slave soldiers further resulted into the southern masters incurring huge loses. Beginning from purchasing new slaves, farms and machines, they incurred a lot of losses from the civil wars. Chesnut recorded in her diaries that it reached a time when a piece of utensil would cost as much as a thousand dollars from less than a dollar before the outbreak of the civil wars.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a number of factors have been found to be responsible for the eruption of the American civil wars. Among these are the calls for the abolition of slavery in the continent and unbalanced trade agreements between the south and the northern states. Political ideologies, which differed considerably between the south and the northern states, also escalated the two regions to go to the civil wars. The effects of these wars were far reaching and had tremendous effects on the economies of both the northern as well as the southern states. The abolition of slavery in the continent formed the major achievement in the aftermath of the civil wars.
References
Brown, C. J. (2000). Tampa in Civil War and Reconstruction. Tampa, FL: University of Tampa Press.
Buker, G. (1993). Blockaders, Refugees & Contrabands: Civil War on Florida’s Gulf Coast, 1861-1865. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
Driscoll, J. K. (2007). The Civil War on Pensacola Bay, 1861-1862. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
Florida Humanities Council. (2010). The Civil War: When Florida “Opened Up the Gates of Hell.”. The Magazine of the Florida Humanities Council, 34 (1).
Mary, B. M. C. (1965). A Diary From Dixie: Electronic Edition. (D. M. Isabella, & L. A. Myrta, Eds.) New York: D. Appleton and Company
Pearce, G. F. (2000). Pensacola During the Civil War: A Thorn in the Side of the Confederacy. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Revels, T. J. (2004). Grander in Her Daughters: Florida’s Women During the Civil War. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
Rivers, L. E. (2000). Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Taylor, R. A. (1995). Rebel Storehouse: Florida in the Confederate Economy. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
University South Caroliniana Society newsletter. (FALL, 2011). Mary Chesnut’s Illustrated Diary (Mulberry Edition ed.). University of South Carolina Press.
Winsboro, I. D. (2007). Florida’s Civil War: Explorations into Conflict, Interpretations and Memory. Cocoa, FL: The Florida Historical Society Press.
Wynne, L. N., & Robert, A. T. (2001). Florida in the Civil War. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.