Was the civil war necessary?

In my opinion, the civil war was necessary. At the time, the root of all upheaval in America was slavery. The South and the North had opposing views of slavery. As for the North, slavery was nature’s immoral act. Within no time, societies such as American Anti-Slavery Society arose, which strongly campaigned against slavery. When William Lloyd Garrison called for immediate liberation of slaves, through The Liberator newspaper, major controversy arose between the North and the South. While the North strongly campaigned against slavery, the South begged for more slave states which would later their differences (Hsieh, 2003)  Lack of an act that would well serve to settle the conflicts about slavery would later lead to civil war. For instance, the Kansas-Nebraska act, which stated that popular sovereignty would decide slavery in the states, could not provide a solution to the situation as it was logic that one state would remain free while the other would remain in slavery. And therefore since no acts were available to settle such situations, civil war was the only option 9Hsieh, 2003). Moreover, the Kansas-Nebraska act would later ruin the 1820 and 1850 compromise, and this further angered the Northerners (Parrish, 2002). The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law supported the Northerners argument about the moral aspects of slavery and this further precipitated the civil war. Additionally, the court’s decision through Dred Scott which backed slavery further worsened the situation thereby widening the rift between the North and the South. This decision infuriated the Northerners who felt that rather than a decision the judges had just expressed their opinion as Southerners. The Southerners on the other hand felt that they could not make peace with the Northerners who could not abide to the rules of the Supreme Court (Hsieh, 2003). The civil war therefore acted as a bridge to unite the Southerners and the Northerners who given the situation at the could not be united through any other means.

References

Hsieh, W. W. (2003). Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War (review). Civil War History, 49(2), 188-189. doi:10.1353/cwh.2003.0039 Parrish, T. M. (2002). The American Civil War: Literary Sources and Documents (review). Civil War History, 48(3), 274-275. doi:10.1353/cwh.2002.0042