Civil war :: essays research papers fc

THE CAUSE Americans have always been independent group of people. We just don’t like being told what to do. This is true now as it was in the past, or will be in the future. It all started in the early colonial era (1700) when we really felt ourselves as â€Å"Americans†. Before that in the 1600’s we were just settlers in the new America. In the 1700’s we fought with the British to stop the union of France and Spain. We started our own newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazett published by Benjamin Franklin. We opened the first American public library, the first hospital. We started the postal service with Benjamin Franklin as Postmaster General. All was not perfect in the colonies. The English Parliament started raising the taxes on imported items such as sugar, coffee, textiles and wines. We started raising the issue of taxation without representation. The English Parliament went as far as to introduce the Quartering Act, requiring colonists to house British troops and supply them with food. On April 19, 1775 an unordered shot begins the American Revolution. If the question at hand is what were the events that lead to the secession of South Carolina? Why did I spend two paragraphs on the American Revolution? Because I feel it is important to remind us of what kind of people we Americans are. How we will stand up for ourselves. I will not say we will fight for what is right, one cannot say slavery was right, or every fight we got ourselves into was right, but South Carolina and most of the south felt it was their right to own slaves. After all they had slaves in early colonial America when in 1619 a Dutch ship brought twenty Africans for sale as indentured servants thus marking the beginning of slavery in America. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and more slave labor was needed to keep up with the vast amount of cotton that could now be produced. Less than forty years latter a growing anti-slavery movement was gaining recognition in the north. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel â€Å"Uncle Tom’s Cabin† helped spread the anti-slavery message. Everyday Americans who probably wouldn’t have given the anti-slavery movement much thought were now motivated by this book. The south had growing concerns that the anti-slavery movement was growing and could abolish slavery. After all this was a way of life for the south.