Travis Carpenter

Civil War DBQ

SOST 316
11/4/15

List of Primary Sources Used:

http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/images/587.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Cotton_planter_and_pickers1908.jp
g/350px-Cotton_planter_and_pickers1908.jpg
http://ccgpscivilwar.pbworks.com/f/1357750418/northern-industry.jpg
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook_print.cfm?smtid=3&psid=4551
https://civilwargroupd.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/union-and-liberty.jpg
http://www.ushistory.org/us/images/00035483.jpg
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/T-03251.pdf
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/compromise-of-1850.html
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=323

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the Confederate Armys bombing of Fort
Sumter in Charleston, SC. A precise cause of the war is unknown, but many factors lead to the

war. One factor was slavery. The North and the South had polar opposite views on slavery.
Slavery was viewed as an evil entity by the North, but the South felt slavery was vital to its
economy. The South relied heavily on slave labor on the vast plantations. The North was far
more industrialized than the South and did not need slaves. The south also believed in the
doctrine of states rights which meant that any state should determine for itself whether it wanted
to be a free or slave state. They believed the United States government did not have the power to
abolish slavery. The last straw was when Lincoln was elected President in 1860. The South
viewed Lincoln as a threat to their way of life because he was very much opposed to slavery.
The southern states saw no other alternative than to secede from the Union and create their own
country. Lincoln wasnt about to let the South go without a fight. He was determined to save the
Union at all costs.
The war lasted four years and cost countless lives. The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in
American history, claiming over 620,000 lives. However, a recent study by Binghamton
University professor Dr. J. David Hacker states the death toll could have been as many as
850,000. In the end, the Union defeated the Confederacy and the United States of America was
preserved. Slavery was officially abolished and the era of Reconstruction began. The outcome
of the war directly led to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes
Booth, only six days after the war ended.

Directions: Use these documents to write an essay answering the following question.
Question: What were the fundamental differences between the North and the South before the
Civil War? What was the Compromise of 1850 and how did it affect relations between the North
and the South? What was the author of the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clays position on
slavery? How did Lincolns views on slavery and southern secession impact the election or
1860? What were some of the reasons Mississippi cited from seceding from the Union?

Southern Cotton Plantation

Northern Industrial Factory

Compromise of 1850 Document

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/compromise-of-1850.html

Excerpt from Henry Clay on Slavery

Original Document: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=323
Slavery is undoubtedly a manifest violation of the rights of man. It can only be justified in
America, if at all, by necessity. That it entails innumerable mischiefs upon our Country I think is
quite clear. It may become dangerous in particular parts of the Union. But the slaves can never, I
think, acquire permanent ascendancy in any part

Election of 1860

Abraham Lincolns speech fragment on Slavery

s.l., circa 1857-1858.

Autograph manuscript, 1 page.
dent truth. Made so plain by our good Father in Heaven, that all feel and understand it, even
down to brutes and creeping insects. The ant, who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest,
will furiously defend the fruit of his labor, against whatever robber assails him. So plain, that the
most dumb and stupid slave that ever toiled for a master, does constantly know that he is
wronged. So plain that no one, high or low, ever does mistake it, except in a plainly selfish way;
for although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of
the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.
Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of the equal rights of men, as I
have, in part, stated them; ours began, by affirming those rights. They said, some men are too
ignorant, and vicious, to share in government. Possibly so, said we; and, by your system, you
would always keep them ignorant and vicious. We proposed to give all a chance; and we
expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant, wiser; and all better, and happier together.
We made the experiment; and the fruit is before us. Look at it-- Think of it-- Look at it, in its
aggregate grandeur, of extent of country, and numbers of population, of ship, and steamboat, and
rail

Mississippis reasons for secession.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook_print.cfm?smtid=3&psid=4551