Civil War DBQ Essay

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Slavery was a big part of our nation’s history. The North and the South had different opinions of slavery which led to the Civil War. The first arrival of slaves was in 1619. A Dutch ship brought twenty Africans to Virginia and they were sold. It spread to the thirteen colonies and, by 1776, almost 600,000 slaves lived in our country. This totaled almost 20 percent of the nation's population. To be exact, it made up less than 1 percent of the northern states population and close to 40 percent of the southern states population. Slavery existed all throughout the union at the time of American Independence. However, the South, undoubtedly, owned more slaves. The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal.” The North started …show more content…

Slaves were needed to grow and raise cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, and other agricultural products. The signing of the Declaration of Independence had shown the North that all slaves should be created equal. But in the south, they found it impossible for slaves to be given the same rights as white people and so they kept slavery going. Many political leader in the South felt that slavery would never be abolished if it existed in more states and territories. So the south demanded over and over again that slavery spread to the west, they found that if they brought slavery to the west it would make more sense because both regions were largely based on farming this was said in document 2. Abraham Lincoln was elected for president of the United States on November 6,1860. Lincoln had his support on the North meaning he had no electoral votes in the south, which were slavehood states. Six weeks after the election South Carolina became the first southern state to leave the union. South Carolina's leaders wrote and voted upon a declaration of secession stating “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free.” Also being announced that the South should be excluded from the common territory and that war must be waged against Slavery until it shall cease throughout the United

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