Civil War

Civil War Essay Prior to reading the book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara I must say that I was extremely ignorant to the topic of the Civil War. If someone were to ask me why the Civil War took place I would say plain and simple, “slavery.” Although slavery was the main cause for the war, I didn’t understand how or why the topic of slavery was ever a debate. There are very few people in today’s society that can say without hesitation that slavery was at all ethical or moral. The mere thought of humans being treated as objects rather than people is absurd. But for the south slavery was more than that, slavery was a way of life. The south flourished and thrived off of the crops and cotton that the slaves worked on, so as you can imagine abolishing slavery was something that the south could ill afford. Abraham Lincoln was the president at the time of the Civil War. He was elected President on November 6, 1860. He had a lot to deal with as the southern states were frustrated with his outright opposal of slavery. Not even two months after being elected as president the first succession of the United State was among us. On December 20, 1860 South Carolina succeeded from the union. This triggered the succession of many other states such as Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, and other southern states. Lincoln believed that the southern states weren’t allowed to perform this action. Southern States didn’t feel that way and rightfully so. The people in the south felt as though the federal government was overusing their power. A quote from the book that really stuck out to me was when Moxley Sorrel stated “know that government derives its power from the consent of the governed. Every Government, everywhere and sir let me make this plain: we do not consent. We will never consent.” (65) Rather than fighting over the topic of slavery the south believed that they were fighting for freedom of the states. This is true, the reason that states have such strong