What motivated northerners to fight in the Civil War?
Historians have this longstanding debate about Northerners’ motivations for fighting the Civil War: whether it was fought for restoration of the Union or abolition of slavery and whether the primary motivation shifted from one to the other over time. In fact, there was a broad spectrum of beliefs among Northerners about war aims.
What did Northerners believe about war aims?
In fact, there was a broad spectrum of beliefs among Northerners about war aims. On one end of the spectrum there were radical abolitionists who envisioned an interracial society and on the other there were conservatives who were hostile to abolition but believed the Union should be restored.
Did white northerners favor restraint during and after the Civil War?
Thus, they argue, white Northerners favored restraint during and after the Civil War to ease the reintegration of white Southerners.
Why did white northerners want to restore the Union?
One loosely defined group of historians argues that most white Northerners aimed primarily to restore the Union: to preserve the nation and not to transform it. Other historians, meanwhile, claim that white Northerners generally sought to extend freedom by creating a new nation without slavery.
What were the 3 main reasons people in the north fought in the Civil War?
The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery, states' rights and westward expansion.
How did the North feel about the Civil War?
Many Northerners imagined the Civil War as a battle waged to deliver the South from the clutches of the “Slave Power,” a conspiracy of elite slaveholders who held disproportionate sway over national politics and who had duped, bullied, and even terrorized non-slaveholding white Southerners into supporting the project ...
Why did the North fight against slavery?
One loosely defined group of historians argues that most white Northerners aimed primarily to restore the Union: to preserve the nation and not to transform it. Other historians, meanwhile, claim that white Northerners generally sought to extend freedom by creating a new nation without slavery.
Why did the North stop slavery?
The North wanted to block the spread of slavery. They were also concerned that an extra slave state would give the South a political advantage. The South thought new states should be free to allow slavery if they wanted. as furious they did not want slavery to spread and the North to have an advantage in the US senate.
How did the North view the war?
Northerners imagined the Civil War as a war of deliverance, waged to deliver the South from the clutches of a conspiracy and to deliver to it the blessings of free society and of modern civilization. Northerners did not expect white Southerners en masse to rise up and overthrow secession.
How did the South feel about the Civil War?
Most white Southerners reacted to defeat and emancipation with dismay. Many families had suffered the loss of loved ones and the destruction of property. Some thought of leaving the South altogether, or retreated into nostalgia for the Old South and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
Why did the North want to keep the South in the Union?
Northerners viewed the South as the domain of moneyed aristocrats and feared that allowing the country to split would mean, essentially, the death of the republic. So they felt they had to force the Confederate states to rejoin the United States.
Why did the Northerners fight in the Civil War?
Among the enduring mysteries of the American Civil War is why millions of Northerners were willing to fight to preserve the nation’s unity. It is not difficult to understand why the Southern states seceded in 1860 and 1861. As the Confederacy’s founders explained ad infinitum, they feared that Abraham Lincoln’s election as president placed ...
Why did the Northerners fight for emancipation?
They embraced emancipation only when they concluded it had become necessary to win the war. They fought because they regarded the United States as a unique experiment in democracy that guaranteed political liberty and economic opportunity in a world overrun by tyranny. Saving the Union, in the words of Secretary of State William H. Seward, meant “the saving of popular government for the world.”...
Who said "Erring sisters go in peace"?
But why did so few Northerners echo the refrain of Horace Greeley, the editor of The New York Tribune: “Erring sisters, go in peace”? The latest effort to explain this deep commitment to the nation’s survival comes from Gary W. Gallagher, the author of several highly regarded works on Civil War military history.
What was the position of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision of 1857?
Large numbers of Americans identified democratic citizenship as a privilege of whites alone — a position embraced by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision of 1857. Which is why the transformation wrought by the Civil War was so remarkable.
Why was the war supported by the soldiers themselves?
Otherwise, it’s clear from McPherson's book of letters from the front that the war was supported by the soldiers themselves for the reason given as the abolition of slavery.
Why did we fight in OIF?
I’ve known people that joined to see the world, to make their parents proud, to provide for their family, to get to have an exciting job, in response to 9/11, etc etc etc. The only reason we fought in OIF for example though is the leadership of the nation decided we should go their and fight for their reasons. Your personal desire to fight or not had ZERO impact on why you were sent to fight.
How many white men were in the Union army?
Perhaps 100,000 white men from the Confederate states served with the Union army, in addition to tens of thousands of freed slaves who joined the USCT (“United States Colored Troops, about 180,000 in total). There were several incidents of USCT soldiers murdered while trying to surrender; a few of their white officers were murdered as well. Large numbers of white men from the border states (slave states but not joining the Confederacy) joined the Union forces. Substantial areas became essentially lawless for extended periods of time.
What are the two beliefs of the Southern people?
So the answer is clearly given as a combination of two beliefs: respect for the political process and opposition to slavery. Refusal to see this is un-American—or truly southern.
What do political facts on the ground explain?
In other words, the political facts on the ground explain the existential why-ness of the question as such.
What happened in 1863?
But in 1863, the tide turned again. First, the Union started winning all the time. Second, both Union soldiers and civilians started to be exposed to the horrors of slavery. To that point, the South had managed to paint slavery as a beneficial and innocuous institution. Few people in the North had actually had any experience with slavery whatsoever (one big exception, Lincoln himself, who had seen slaves chained to a boat to be taken to sale) and, like with the police today, excesses were seen as a few bad apples. When the Union made it into the deep South, Union soldiers were horrified with the conditions slaves faced and most became abolitionists. They found children as young as ten with whipping scars for one thing, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Where did the guerrillas fight?
There was savage guerrilla fighting in parts of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and most of Indian Territory. Quantrill’s Confederate guerrillas raided Lawrence, Kansas, and murdered 180 men and boys.