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Slavery had been a divisive issue in the United States well before the Civil War. While the Founding Fathers were debating the exact wording of the Declaration of Independence, there was a debate to include the word slavery or not in the document. The idea was that the Colonies were being held as slaves to the crown, but the paradox was that if they were going to state that, how could they in good consciousness keep African slaves as well?
After the Revolution, there was great power struggles in Congress to address slavery. During the early 1800s, the Slave Trade was banned by the British, and internal slave trade began in the United States. This meant that there was trading of slaves between slaves, and Congress had to act to protect the rights of interstate commerce, even if it meant dealing with human lives. Also, there was a struggle to keep the balance of power between the quickly industrializing North and the mostly agrarian South. Whenever a slave state was brought into the Union, a free state would have to be as well. A compromise had been given in 1820 stated that any state below the bottom of Missouri would be a slave state while any above (except Missouri) would be a free state. This would determine the status of the West and slavery.
In 1850, a new compromise was reached in Congress to allow territories that were to become states would have the freedom to choose if they were going to be Free or Slave. A struggle to determine if Kansas would become a slave or free state came to a boil. Many from both sides flooded the state before the vote was to happen, and fighting broke out. During the next few years, battles between pro-slavery and pro-freedom factions broke out, causing the area to be known as Bleeding Kansas.
The final act in leading up to the Civil War was the Republican party's official stance as being pro-Freedom. With the election of Lincoln, many in the South thought that Lincoln would ban slavery (something that he did not do until it became a political necessity) in the South.
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What issue was decided by the US Civil War?
Actually there were two major issues that were decided by the US Civil War. The end of the Confederate rebellion made it clear that secession from the United States was eventually as being illegal. The Union's victory in the US Civil War also meant that slavery would be abolished in the US by the 13th amendment.
What best describes why The North engaged in the US Civil War?
To preserve the Union. The North (Union) went to war with the South (Confederates) because of slavery. Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery and signed an act into law that emancipated the slaves throughout the United States. The Southern states wanted to keep slavery so we (the confederate states) removed ourselves from the Union and declared war against the Union.
How was slavery a sectional issue before 1820?
Most white Americans saw slavery as mainly a local issue
What did the North and South want during the Civil War?
The North wanted to abolish slavery while The South wanted to continue slavery.Not quite. The south didn't want anything persay. The cicil war is often catagorized as being a war over slavery, and this is false. The north was fighting to keep the union in tact. Abraham Lincoln stated that "If (he) could save the Union without freeing any slaves I(he) would do it, and if (he) could save the Union by freeing all slaves, (he) would do it....What (he did) about slavery, and the coloured race, (he did) because (he believed) it helps to save the Union."The south was fighting the was as a constitutional issue. They felt that the abolition of slavery and the compromises of 1850 and the Missourri Compromise impeded on their 10th amendment right to decide for themselves.
When did slavery become an issue The start of the war middle or the end.?
slavery became an issue many years before the civil war.
