Student No.: 61541524 HSY2601 – Assignment 02 Unique No.

: 864825

FULL NAME(S) : NHLAKANIPHO KHWELA

STUDENT NUMBER : 615 415 24

MODULE CODE : HSY2601

ASSIGNMENT NUMBER : 02

UNIQUE NUMBER : 864825

Declaration

Name: Nhlakanipho Khwela

Student number: 61541524

Assignment number: 2

I declare that this assignment is my own original work. Where secondary material has
been used (either from a printed source or from the internet), this has been carefully
acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental requirements. I
understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the department’s policy in this
regard. I have not allowed anyone else to copy my work.

Signature: N. Khwela

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Student No.: 61541524 HSY2601 – Assignment 02 Unique No.: 864825

‘The southern states of the Unites States of America had

no choice but to secede from the Union in 1860 as
President Abraham Lincoln was about to abolish slavery.’

The root cause of the American Civil War is perhaps the most controversial topic in
American history. Even before the war was over, scholars in the North and South
began to analyse and interpret the reasons behind the bloodshed. The scholars
quickly disagreed over the causes of the war and disagreement persists today. Many
maintain that the primary cause of the war was the Southern states’ desire to
preserve the institution of slavery. Others minimize slavery and point to other factors
such as taxation or the principle of States’ Rights. In this following discussion, I will
be discussing with detail the above mentioned “causes” by the scholars and try to
make sense out of all of them. Surely there are many reasons that would persuade
States to want to withdraw from the Union. Here, I get to construct a piece that looks
at all the possible causes, and possibly give some perspective as to why I fully
support the argument that states that, these Southern States withdrew from the
Union because the then president, Abraham Lincoln was about to abolish slavery.

The proximate cause of the South’s secession was the election of Abraham Lincoln
with a Republican majority in 1860. However, in and of itself, secession was a major
overreaction to this political setback.
Lincoln’s election fed the perception that Southern interests were losing control of
the federal government, and that this government would eventually suppress the
institution of slavery or outlaw it altogether. However, Lincoln’s victory in 1860 was
far from dominant. As the Republican candidate, he received 1 887 votes in Virginia
and did not appear on the ballot in any other state which eventually joined the
Confederacy. At the same time, he won other states (such as California, Oregon,
Illinois, and Indiana) by somewhat narrow margins. Only in the Upper Midwest and
New England did he have a dominant political position.

Southern extremism on the slavery issue had split the Democratic Party into three
factions who were unable to effectively compete with the Republicans after 1860, the
Democrats would have operated as a minority, but bot overwhelming so. In the
Senate things would have been very close to deadlocked – with a possible
Democratic majority.1

1
The 37th Congress. 1860 Presidential Election results.

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Student No.: 61541524 HSY2601 – Assignment 02 Unique No.: 864825

The Confederate States of America, also called Confederacy in the American Civil
War, the government of 11 Southern States that seceded from the Union in 1860-61,
carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war until
defeated in the spring of 1865. During this period, there were pivotal characters
which include; Jefferson Davies, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Stonewall Jackson, Albert
Sidney Johnston to name a few. These states, convinced that their way of life, based
on slavery, was irretrievably threatened by the election of President Abraham Lincoln
in November 1860, the seven states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas) seceded from the Union during
the following months. When the war began with the firing of Fort Sumter on April 12,
1861, they were joined by four states of the upper South (Arkansas, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Virginia).
A provisional government, established in February 1861 at Montgomery, Alabama,
was replaced by a permanent government at Richmond, Virginia, a year later. The
Confederacy, operating under a structure like that of the Unites States, was headed
by President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander H. Stephens. Both the
president and the vice president of the Confederacy were to serve six-year terms,
and the president could not be re-appointed.) The new nation soon acquired other
symbols of sovereignty, such as its own stamps and a flag known as the Stars and
Bars.

The main concern of the Confederate States was raising and equipping an army.
The Southern Congress first voted to permit direct volunteering up to 400 000, but
conscription was begun in April 1862. The total number of Confederate soldiers is
estimated at 750 000, as opposed to twice that many Federal troops. Confederate
population stood at about 5 500 000 whites and 22 000 000 Northerners. In
railroads, the South had only 9 000 miles, the industrial North 22 000. The
Confederacy’s early attempts to raise funds centred on printing money, which proved
highly inflationary, and issuing bonds that could be paid for in kind. Because of the
Federal blockade of Southern ports, tariff revenues proved inadequate. In 1863 a
general tax bill was passed, imposing license and occupational taxes, a profit tax,
and a 10 percent tax on farm products, collected in kind. Profitable private blockade
running was put under strict supervision in 1864. Prices of farm products for the
army were eventually fixed to check profiteering.

In foreign affairs, the South had been initially confident of the power and influence of
“King Cotton”, the crop that accounted for more than half the value of U.S exports
before the war. Confederates felt that the importance of cotton would force
diplomatic recognition from the Federal government and European countries. Neither
the commissioners sent abroad in 1861 nor the permanent envoys who replaced
them were able to secure recognition from Great Britain, France, or any other
European power. The South was able, however, to buy considerable war materiel
and several fast ships that destroyed much Federal shipping on the high seas.

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Student No.: 61541524 HSY2601 – Assignment 02 Unique No.: 864825

I have discussed with examples why I think the Southern States of the United States
of America had no choice but to withdraw from the Union in 1860 as President
Abraham Lincoln was about to abolish slavery. From the above discussion, it is
evident that the eleven States decided to secede from the union because Abraham
Lincoln had just won the elections. Although he did not just abolish the act, they
initially thought that that was his main objective, to abolish slavery.

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Student No.: 61541524 HSY2601 – Assignment 02 Unique No.: 864825

REFERENCES

 Goodwin, DK, Team of political rivals: the political genius of Abraham Lincoln
(London: Penguin, 2009).
 Reynolds, D, America: empire of liberty (London: Allen Lane, 2009).
 Schama, S, The American future: a history (London: The Bodley Head, 2008).
 https://www.britannica.com>topic
 https://www.battlefields.org>articles
 https://www.americanhistoryusa.com
 https://en.n.m.wikipedia.org>wiki
 The 37th Congress. 1860 Presidential Election results.

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Student No.: 61541524 HSY2601 – Assignment 02 Unique No.: 864825

My personal assignment checklist

X
Have I written down the original assignment question?
X
Have I familiarised myself with the core aspects of the topic before starting
X to write my assignment?
Have I consulted at least ONE additional source, apart from the guide?
X
Have I familiarised myself with the Unisa policy on plagiarism and am I
X aware of my obligation not to paraphrase or copy from the guide or any
other sources?
Have I inserted the requested plagiarism declaration?
X
Have I inserted at least ONE source reference/footnote according to the
X guidelines in Tutorial Letter HSYALLX/301?
Apart from the references, have I inserted a list of all the sources
X (bibliography) that I have used according to the guidelines in Tutorial Letter
HSYALLX/301?
Does the technical presentation of my assignment comply with academic
X standards of essay writing, e.g. paragraphs, coherent sentences, writing on
one side of the page only, no writing in the margins, etc?
Have I carefully proofread my assignment for errors and mistakes, before
X submitting it to Unisa?

Have I consulted Study @ Unisa or contacted my lecturers if I felt that I

X needed more guidance and support?

X My comments on my experience in HSY2601

Familiarising myself with this module was a bit tricky, considering it is not the
only history module I registered to study this year. I have four (4) other
history modules, so juggling back and forth between them required me to be
extra vigilant as I could not afford to use another module’s information on
another.

I did manage to give myself time to understand the module better. I hope I
have done well to acquire good marks.

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