Abolition vs. Equality in the American Civil War Coursework

The American Civil War had a significant influence on the government institution, military hardware development, economic expansion and interracial relations in the USA. It is hard to underestimate the overall legacy of this war but I consider the abolition by law to be the most important change in the life of American society. The 13^th Amendment was adopted on the 1^st of February, 1865. The acceptance of 13^th Amendment to the United States Constitution can be regarded as an event that introduced the idea of racial equality into the legal system. The Resolution was signed by Abraham Lincoln, the 16^th President of the United States who believed the annihilation of slavery and preserving the Union to be the core targets of the war. This event was preceded by Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln at the beginning of 1863 but the document was a common subject of criticism as it proposed to free slaves only in the independent territories (Hummel, 2014). As for the 13^th Amendment, it was an improvement in establishing the civil rights of black people as it was aimed at setting slaves free everywhere. Moreover, it was calling off the prohibition on giving the aid to fugitive slaves. The involuntary labor was announced to be legal only as a punishment for criminals. Unfortunately, many white people did not want to live in accordance with these rules, this is why they tried to use the new amendment against black people, framing them up and making them work involuntarily for their ‘crimes’. The 13^th Amendment was followed by the 14^th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War and promising the American citizenship to all the people born in United States (Hummel, 2014). The significance of this event can not be downplayed as the principle of equal rights for the people of all races is essential for modern American society considering democracy and social justice to be the key values. Regrettably, we can not say that modern world managed to cope with the problem of involuntary labor and human trafficking that affects people of all races. It is illegal but it still exists and solving the problem requires more actions.

The debate concerning abolition was one of the key issues of the American Civil War but the war itself was not caused by the problem of slave-owning (Hummel, 2014). The North and the South were, to some extent, two parties to a wider conflict including the political disagreement, opposite opinions on preserving the Union, turf battles and different attitudes to slavery and its impact on society. The event that became a reason of a war was the state-collapse caused by the disagreement on the abolition. The situation with slavery was different in the North and in the South: slaveholders who owned the plantations have been the most powerful social group in the South for many decades whereas in the North the phenomenon of slavery and involuntary work was criticized as one tearing up the foundations of moral. The representatives of the South had certain fears about the possible influence of freed slaves from the North. The fears were hard to be called groundless as the North had more population due to the influx of immigrants, higher level of commercial activity and rapid economic growth. Due to the widespread use of slave labor, the South was unable to introduce new farming methods unlike the North. All these factors led to the fall of the South from power, making the North a formidable opponent for them.

References

Hummel, J. R. (2014). Emancipating slaves, enslaving free men: a history of the American Civil War. Chicago, IL: Open Court.