The Civil War In The usa.
Abraham Lincoln
The purpose of the Civil War was to restore the Union of the Individual states and to preserve the Constitution. However, Congress was determined to make emancipation (freeing of the slaves) the primary issue of the war.
Just before the outbreak of the Civil War, two issues faced the nation. The first was the freeing of the slaves, which the Southerners believed was a loss of property. The second issue was the right of secession (the withdrawal of a state from the Union). The Constitution was an agreement between the states, so therefore each state had the right to leave the Union when they pleased. These issues divided the nation.
In February of 1861, the Confederation states of America was formed. It consisted of South Caroline, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arcansas and Texas.
On the 1st of January, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring the freedom of slaves. However, the actual end of slavery did not come until 1865. The Civil War came to an end on the 1st of April, 1865.With the end of the war came the concept that the United States is not a group of states but rather one nation. With the emancipation of the slaves, new issues, such as civil rights, appeared.
II post-reading interactive activities
4. Project Work. Think and write your opinion. In what way do you think the fall of slavery in America and defeat of the Confederation are connected? Was another choice for the country? Why yes or not?
5. Use for your project materials lower. Slavery and the Framing of the u.S. Constitution
The question of prohibiting the African slave-trade caused much and warm debate. A compromise was agreed to by the insertion of a clause (art. I., sec. 9, clause 1) in the Constitution, as follows: "The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight; but a tax, or duty, may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person." The idea of prohibiting the African slave-trade, then warmly advocated, was not new. In 1774 the Continental Congress, while releasing the colonies from other provisions of the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION , had expressly resolved " that no slave be imported into any of the United States." Delaware, by her constitution, and Virginia and Maryland by special laws, had prohibited the importation of slaves. Similar prohibitions were in force in all the more northern States; but they did not prevent the merchants of those States from carrying on the slave-trade elsewhere, and already some New England ships were engaged in a traffic from the African coast to Georgia and South Carolina. These States were forgetful of or indifferent to the pledges they had made through their delegates in the face of the world by their concurrence in the Declaration of Independence, and seemed fully determined to maintain not only the slave system of labor, but the nefarious slave-trade. North Carolina did not prohibit the traffic, but denounced the further importation of slaves into the State as " highly impolitic," and imposed a heavy duty on future importations.
On the demand of Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, who entered into the negotiations for a preliminary treaty of peace, at a late hour, a clause in the treaty (1782) was interlined, prohibiting, in the British evacuation, the " carrying away any negroes or other property of the inhabitants." So this treaty of peace, in which no word had, excepting indirectly, indicated the existence of slavery in the United States, made known to the world that men could be held as property.The legislature of Connecticut, early in 1784, passed an act that no negro or mulatto child born within that State after March 1 that year should be held in servitude longer than until the age of twenty-five years.
In 1788 the captain of a vessel in Boston seized three colored persons, took them to the West Indies, and sold them there for slaves. This event caused the legislature of Massachusetts to pass a law to prevent the slave-trade in that State, and for granting relief to the families of such persons as may be kidnapped or decoyed from the commonwealth. The law subjected to a heavy penalty any person who should forcibly take or detain any negro for the purpose of transportation as a slave, and the owner of the vessel in which such kidnapped man should be carried away incurred, also, a heavy penalty. The insurance on the vessel was made void; and the relatives of the person kidnapped, if the latter were sold into slavery in a distant country, were allowed to prosecute for the crime.
On May 12, 1789, a tariff bill having been reported to Congress, and being under discussion on the question of its second reading, Parker, of Virginia, moved to insert a clause imposing a duty of $10 on every slave imported. " He was sorry," he said, " the Constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting the importation altogether. It was contrary to revolutionary principles, and ought not to be permitted." A warm debate ensued. It called forth the opposition of South Carolinians and Georgians particularly. Jackson, of Georgia, made a vehement speech in opposition, in the course of which he said he hoped the proposition would be withdrawn, and that if it should be brought forward again it would comprehend " the white slaves as well as the black imported from all the jails of Europe—wretches convicted of the most flagrant crimes, who were brought in and sold without any duty whatever." This was an allusion to the indentured white servants who were sold by the captains of vessels on their arrival here to pay the cost of their passage, a practice which had been put a stop to by the Revolutionary War, but partially revived. The motion was finally withdrawn.