How Was the Civil War Driven By the People or the Leader of the Time? Task To what extent was the Civil War a peoples war, in the sense that the population in the North opposed slavery and the population in the South supported slavery?

The civil war was a people war because the ultimate cause traced to people divisions over the slavery inherent in the American society since the 1780s. During that period, the leaders tried to work out compromises and the language in the constitution that balanced the divisions between the regions. Their motive was to unite the people in a single nation, but it did not work because people were after the beneficial nature of the slave labor and not the unity of the nation. The Northern colonies did not rely entirely on slavery as it was with the Southern colonies where the demand of the slaves was high. According to McPherson & Hogue, (2010), the invention of a cotton gin lead to expansion of cotton plantation that lead to demand of more slave labor in the South state, but it brought crisis because the Northern people tried to abolish the slavery or start a system of gradual emancipation to reduce the abuse. The two states agreed to outlaw the importation of slaves from overseas in 1808, the slaves holding state agreed to prohibition on the slave trade because they feared if the afro-Caribbean slaves brought in would bring with them the slave rebellion and cause the conflict between the people. The people of the south state though they agreed with the abolishment of the slave in the plantation, they continued with slaves’ trade to earn income. This was worse because the North state saw it has denial of the people of the human right and dignity in the nation.

To what extent was the War driven by the leader?

As the nation expanded westward, it was clear that maintaining the political balance between the two states was difficult, and the leaders were unable to form new measures to solve the problem. The leaders played a part of the war because they compromised between the sections on the issues of abolishment of the slave trade that led to crisis that threatened to disrupt the nation social and economic stability. The leaders had no jurisdiction over the conditions and laws regulating slavery within the individual states, they were unable to address the rapid economic and social changes brought about by the industrial rebellion in the two states (McPherson & Hogue, 2010). The corruption among leaders also contributed to the war because they were torn between the political and social benefit they would get from the implementation of the laws. In conclusion, the civil war was a people and a leader’s war because both would stop the crisis but they did not due to selfish driven motives.

Reference

McPherson, J. & Hogue, J. (2010). Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. New

York: McGraw-Hill.