by James Johnson

Created on: March 06, 2009   Last Updated: April 26, 2009

The ultimate impact of the Civil War of the Untied States of America was to officially end the enslavement of different races in the United States. This started the building a foundation for the creation of a Nation where all races are considered equal. It showed that Americans were willing to put their lives at stake for people of a different colour; it helped to establish future racial equality. Most other countries ended slavery due to economics, they were freeing people to save or make money rather than as the Americans,at the cost of not only finances, but also lives.

Few people realize that American Slavery was actually started by companies in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a way of raising capital by providing cheap labour to the Southern States. The South then institutionalized it and became dependant on salvery as a foundation for its plantations. Owning people of a different skin colour became legal.

The Civil War impacted slavery by legally ending the atrocity of slavery in one of the fastest growing, most successful countries in the world. The United States was a place were slavery could have continued to expand and grow, destroying the lives of innocent people. By legally ending slavery, America took the first step to bringing all people, irregardless of race, together and molding them ito a unified nation.

The term "legally" is being used because the Civil War did not completely end slavery, even in the United States. Some places still secretly kept slaves, and then there was economic slavery. It was only the first step as the freed slaves were not given assets and so still dependent upon whites for support, and that was also a type of slavery. There is also sexual slavery that still exists today where women are kept on bondage for their bodies.

The impact of the Civil War was to show blacks that many whites felt that they were people and to start ending the slave mentality. The stopping of this way of thinking was important and required for advancement of all races. The Civil War started the process of removing both physical slavery and economic slavery from the United States. Now people are primarily enslaved by their own minds and attitudes.

The impact of the American Civil War was not to end slavery around the world, many African Countries didn't end slavery until 150 years later. The sex slave trade still continues in some Asian Nations, based upon sex rather than race, but still slavery. It did not end racial prejudice and discrimination between people, that still exists today. It did start America on the path to remove it on a government level. That impact has been tremendous.

Has that impact been historically important? It was partly responsible for much of the way the world is today. Many smaller countries ended slavery just to copy what the bigger, more prosperous nation was doing. It has been knocking down racial barriers and made the world a better place. Hopefully that impact will continue to grow and spread, ending all forms of slavery everywhere!

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