Causes Of The Civil War

The Union Dissolves
What events led the United States into civil war? There are many factors that lead into the beginning of the Civil War, but most of the disagreements arose from one problem: slavery. During this time, the nation was split into two: half of which supported slavery, and the other strongly against it. The Northerners were strongly against slavery while the Southerners supported it. Not only are there many causes of the Civil War; there were also many effects that emerged from the war (The American Vision 345).
One big turning point for the South was John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. During John Brown’s raid, he brought together 18 followers and seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry; he believed, as one minister once
Lincoln warned the Confederacy of the shipment, and they knew that a war with the U.S. would begin if they fired at the supply ship. As president of the Confederacy, Davis chose to act before the supply ship arrived and take over Fort Sumter. Peace might be preserved if all goes as planned. A note was delivered to Major Robert Anderson demanding the surrender of Fort Sumter by April 12, 1861. The time came and passed and cannons were fired; for 33 hours, Confederates attacked Fort Sumter, consequently “wrecking the fort but killing no one” (The American Vision 344). The destruction continued until Anderson and his men finally surrendered. This was the beginning of what we now know as the Civil War (The American Vision 343-344). Many more states began to secede, and Lincoln was set on keeping the “slaveholding border states from seceding” (The American Vision 344). Washington would be completely surrounded by Confederate territory if Maryland decided to secede. Lincoln tried to prevent Maryland from seceding by imposing the martial law in Baltimore. “Under the martial, the military takes control of an area and replaces civilian authorities” (The American Vision 344). Citizens could be arrested and held without trial if they supported secession. Kentucky was torn between secession or not, so they declared themselves neutral. As long as the Confederacy left the territory alone, Lincoln promised he would too. Obviously that did not last long because Confederate forces eventually occupied a corner of the state, which caused the Union troops to also move in. Kentucky was angered by the Confederacy invading them, so they “now voted to go to war against the Confederacy” (The American Vision