by Gary Watson

Created on: August 27, 2010   Last Updated: August 28, 2010

The Battle for the soul of America and what the United States stood for, as with all civil wars this was at the heart of the civil conflict in mid-19th century America. At its centre whether from an economical or ideological perspective was the issue of slavery. Slavery had haunted the United States ever since its birth as a nation it was a blemish and an hypocrisy for America, a nation that purported liberty still maintained slavery. The historian Simon Schama has noted that the Founding Fathers spoke of liberty and yet owned slaves and that many of the slaves deserted American independence in favour British rule (George Washington’s own slave Henry Washington joined the British). Schama calls it ‘self liberating black migration’ and it was truly an embarrassing demonstration of the hypocrisy on America’s part. It must be noted however that Washington and the other Founding Fathers released all of their own slaves after the war. Despite this slavery remained this was because from the Founding Fathers onward the Northern states had been given no alternative but to accept the South’s terms on slavery in order for America to remain one country. Thus by the time of the explosion of civil war the continued unification of the United States was threatened after more then half a century of union. This was all born of the built up tension over the issue of slavery and consequently became a recurring reassurance by Lincoln throughout the war determined to end slavery but also determined to preserve one nation, the very idea of the United States. By the mid 19th century America had finally decided to face up to itself and what it stood for, the result was the economic and ideological collision that was The American Civil War. 

There was however also another dimension (mentioned above), this was the economic dimension, a clash of economics. The South began to complain as the economies between northern and southern states became sectionalised with a more industrialised North and agricultural South. There was also much tension resulting from Northern ‘free’ states (supported by the Republican Party) refusing to allow the free movement of property (in this case slaves) to their state. Therefore tensions were already passively rising; it became more offensive as the North moved ever more in the direction of abolition. The South claimed it needed slaves for its largely agricultural economy to survive. Both cotton and tobacco were

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