Origins of the Civil War

Catalog description

What was the Civil War all about? The answer lies largely in its origins. This course examines various aspects of what historians call "The Crisis of the 1850s," the crucial decade that ended in the secession of eleven slave states from the Union? Why did they secede? And why didn't Lincoln let them? The readings focus on two aspects off the crisis. We will first review conflicting interpretations of the origins of the Civil War, after which we will focus on specific aspects of the crisis of the 1850, in particular the cascading series of events that led to war: the War with Mexico, the "Compromise" of 1850, the fugitive slave crisis, the struggle over Kansas, the Dred Scot decision, the collapse of the Whig Party, the rise of the Republican Party, the catastrophic fissure of the Democratic party, and finally the election of Lincoln and the secession crisis. No one methodology can adequately account for the origins of the Civil War-it requires economic, social, political, and cultural history.