The Civil War was doubly tragic because it was completely

unnecessary. Slavery had been ended in other nations with

the stroke of a pen, and yet in the mighty United States the

country was willing to go to war over the issue of whether

slavery should remain. The southerners felt that it was

their constitutional right to own slaves and did not see a

time when they should be required to give up that right.

However, upon the election of Lincoln as President, the

southerners felt threatened, and felt their slave holding

rights were being threatened, and in an effort to protect

these rights they chose to secede from the union. The

northerners and Lincoln saw the importance of maintaining a

united country, set out to bring back the seceded states.

Thus the Civil War began. During the civil war many

Americans were either killed or wounded, this number was

only surpassed by World War II. While the civil war

originally began as a quest to bring the southern states

back to the union. However, the goal of the war did soon

change to that of abolition. While the war may have seemed

necessary to the soldiers and governments who were

participating, in retrospect it was unnecessary. In three

separate European countries, slavery had been abolished

prior to the American Civil War, and each without arms being

raised. Slavery had been abolished in Britain in 1838,

Sweden in 1848, and in Holland in 1863. It indeed could have

similarly been abolished in the United States. However, the

southerners, who were dependent on the slave institution,

refused to give up their right to own slaves easily. Had the

South been more progressively thinking many lives would have

been saved and blood need not have been shed in the name of

slavery. This is particularly true because if the south had

given up their right to free labor (slavery), they would

have soon received the gift of mechanical labor. Indeed they

might have profited more from the use of the machines which

were soon to be invented, as they did not require housing,

and food. However, the southerners were deeply rooted in

their institution of slavery and were prepared to go to war

over their feelings. During this war the battle fields were

transformed into shambles where during the duration of the

war 634,703 union soldiers were killed or wounded, and

335,524 confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. Indeed

this was the second most intense war second to World War II.

In the civil war 3,846 soldiers from both the union army and

the confederate army were killed per month of fighting. This

clearly shows the intensity of the battle and the strong

will which drove both sides to continue fighting in the face

of such catastrophe. The financial burden endured by both

sides was astronomical for the time period. The union force

spent a combined 3.2 billion dollars which in terms of

current currency values is 27.3 billion dollars. The

confederacy spent two billion or 17.1 billion dollars. This

is the price both sides were willing to pay in the name of

slavery. The North and South went to war over the issue of

slavery and endured a great expense in terms of human lives,

and money. They could however have followed the example of

Britain, Sweden, and Holland and simply signed away the

institution of slavery and saved thousands of lives, and

billions in dollars. However, the south was too deeply

rooted in the institution of slavery, and when the

Emancipation Proclamation came which freed the slaves they

still treated them as they did before, often outside of the

legal limits. Even after the 14th amendment which legally

made people of color American citizens, there were strong

racial and prejudicial feelings which ran rampant in the

south, for example the KKK, and Jim Crow Laws, and literacy

tests for the right to vote. African Americans endured these

hardships for years to come, indeed until the civil rights

movement in the 20th century.

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