History Standard 3 Resource
Causes of the Civil War

   
Benchmark Addressed: History 3 (Interpretation)
Suggested Task 1: Read each paragraph and summarize (paraphrase) each thesis.

Thesis 1

Slavery was the central, and virtually the only cause of the war. If the Negro had not been brought to America, the Civil War would not have occurred. Because the North and the South held views on the issue of slavery that were both irreconcilable and unalterable, the conflict was inevitable.

From History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (1893-1900)
By James Ford Rhodes


 
Thesis 2

The clash between different cultures and ideologies caused the Civil War.  Southern slave holders, convinced that the slave system provided a far more humane society than the industrial labor system of the North, constructed a special civilization that was based upon the relationship between master and slave. Just as Northerners were convinced that the Southerners threatened their economic system, Southerners believed Northerners had aggressive and hostile designs on their way of life. These cultural differences made the war between North and South inevitable.

From The Political Economy of Slavery (1965)
By Eugene Genovese


 
Thesis 3

The actions of politicians during the 1850s, rather than the irreconcilable differences between North and South, caused the Civil War. The Democratic politicians from the South and the Republican politicians from the North kept the sectional conflict between the states at the center of political debates for years.

From The Political Crisis of the 1850s (1978)
By Michael Holt

    Suggested Task 2: List and explain possible reasons for the differences in the interpretations that appear above.

Grades 4-5: relate answers to "the evidence presented or the point of view of the author."

Grade 6-8: relate answers to the historians "choice of questions and use of sources."

Grades 9-12: relate answers to the historians' "choice of questions, use and choice of sources, perspectives, beliefs, and points of view."

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*Adapted from Current, Richard N., et al. (1987). American History: A Survey. Seventh Edition. Alfred A. Knopf. New York


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