13 The American Civil War13 The American Civil War.doc

13, The American Civil War Q: What were the causes of the American Civil War? What were the process and effect of the Civil War? A： The causes of the Civil War The process of the Civil War The significance of the Civil War ?1.Slavery Slavery in the United States first began in Virginia in 1619. By the end of the American Revolution, most northern states had abandoned the institution while it continued to grow and flourish in the plantation economy of the South. In the years prior to the Civil War almost all sectional conflicts revolved around the slave issue. This began with the debates over the three-fifths clause at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and continued with the Compromise of 1820, the Nullification Crisis, the anti-slavery Gag Rule, and the Compromise of 1850. 2. States’ rights As the South recognized that control of the government was slipping away, it turned to a states rights argument to protect slavery. Southerners claimed that the federal government was prohibited from impinging upon the right of slaveholders take their property into a new territory and also not permitted to interfere with slavery in those states where it already existed. 3. Sectionalism and cotton trade Sectionalism refers to the different economies, social structure, customs and political values of the North and South. It increased steadily between 1800 and 1860 as the North, which phased slavery out of existence, industrialized, urbanized and built prosperous farms, while the deep South concentrated on plantation agriculture based on slave labor, together with subsistence farming for the poor whites. Confederates counted on King Cotton for economic leverage on Europe. Territorial crisis Between 1803 and 1854, the United States achieved a vast expansion of territory through purchase, negotiation, and conquest. Of the states carved out of these territories by 1845, all had entered the union as slave states: Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida and Texas, as well as the so