Students Again

Colonial period to 1865 Papers

Analyze the Thesis of a Civil War Article – The Origin of the American Civil War

The Origin of the American Civil War, written by Gerald Gunderson, addresses the ongoing debate of what was the cause of the American Civil War. Gunderson clearly expresses his thesis by stating, “Many of these explanations have been thoughtfully prepared and then further polished by cross-examination, yet when all these efforts have been objectively considered they yield few definitive conclusions” (Gunderson 915). He briefly addresses some of the debated causes of the war which includes conflicting objectives, slavery, the development of economic organizations, and succession. After his brief explanation of the ongoing debates, he provides an in-depth research analysis of the cost of war versus abolition. This is an attempt to determine whether the “direct economic stake in slavery” (Gunderson 941) for the South could be motivation to cause war. Then Gunderson offers an analysis to explain the motivation for the North to participate in the war which was addressed by determining the cost of breaking up the Union (and by default ending slavery) versus the cost of the war. In both cases Gunderson comes to the conclusion that the North and the South would have perceived going to war as being the less expense. Based on this information he then makes a claim that slavery was the cause of the war. Gunderson did not adequately address other possible causes of the Civil war and used methods that are not concrete to prove that slavery was the cause of the war. For these reasons, he failed to prove his thesis.

Through the use of an authoritative warrant¹ Gunderson provides data and mathematical formulas to provide proof that the war would cost less than the failure of the North and the South in achieving their objectives. He does not provide adequate proof that the data he is using to make his claims are credible. He expects his reader to accept the data he has provided as credible based on his expertise without adequately explaining the validity of the data used. Gunderson also provides data showing the per capita loss of revenue for southerners as a result of abolition. This is used to aid in his mathematical explanation that the war would cost less. This presentation of data is especially erroneous. By showing a per capita revenue loss Gunderson avoids the fact that slaves are expensive and by 1860 less than 25% of southerners are slave owners (Sproul). The per capita revenue loss data misleads his reader into believing that all southerners are losing significant income which creates the assumption that all southerners would support a war.

Gunderson’s thesis includes the notion that there is an ongoing debate among historians as to the cause of the Civil War. He failed to address other sides of the argument in detail which lends to the loss of parallelism in his paper. He wrote four pages stating that conflicting objectives, the development of economic organizations, and succession are other widely debated reasons for the cause of the Civil War without providing any evidence to prove or debunk these claims. However, he wrote thirty-one pages to convince his reader that slavery was the cause of the Civil War. This decision did a great disservice to the support of his thesis. How can a reader believe his claims of slavery as the cause of the Civil War through a bombardment of information without providing equal, or at least significant, information on the other theories?

Gerald Gunderson had the opportunity to prove his thesis, but failed. He could have done justice to his thesis by providing information supporting the validity of the data he used, not basing the revenue loss from abolition on a per capita basis, and providing information supporting or discrediting the other widely debated theories as to the cause of the Civil War. By omitting critical information and presenting data in his chosen fashion his conclusions cannot be accepted as fact by the reader.

Works Cited

Gunderson, Gerald. “The Origins of the American Civil War.” The Journal of Economic History 34.4 (1974): 915-950.

Sproul, David. Lecture. American Civil War. University of Nevada – Las Vegas. Las Vegas, NV. 9 August 2006.

1865 to Present Papers

Civil Rights

The African American community had a strong reaction to the continuation of being treated as second-class citizens after World War II. African Americans did not share in the prosperity America experienced after the war. The Cold War was blossoming which made this treatment of African Americans more ironic. Americans were fanatical about fighting Communism, but at the same time were content with denying African Americans their Constitutional rights. By the late 1940s the African American community reacted by making the civil rights movement prepared to initiate a direct attack on segregation. The community prepared for the fight by developing new leaders, new tactics, raising money, forming alliances with white people, and enlisting young participants. Also, organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters aided in this reaction by planning a legal assault on segregation. This legal assault consisted of testing laws and working the case through the legal system until it is selected to be heard before the Supreme Court to determine if the law is constitutional.

The second-class treatment of African Americans was particularly insulting during this moment in American history. During World War II millions of African American served as military personnel and many others worked at home. This tremendous effort by African Americans for the war effort was aimed at the preservation of democracy and freedom for the rest of the world; yet, when the war was over African Americans returned to the rank of second-class citizenship in their home nation. African Americans were excluded from the result of being successful in the fight they overwhelmingly helped to achieve. This made the treatment they were receiving during this time in their home country extremely insulting.

African Americans had a few options for challenging the status quo. The existing condition had to change. A few of these options included challenging the constitutionality of current segregation laws, organizing protest, and using the media to aid the fight. One successful challenge to the constitutionality of a law, the separate but equal doctrine (Plessy v. Ferguson 1896), came about in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The decision in Brown determined that although the physical facilities in schools may be equal the requirement of segregation based solely on race was in violation of the fourteenth amendments equal protection clause (equal protection under the law for all citizens). Many protests were also organized during this fight. For example, black organizations recruited Northern white university students to come to Mississippi, a particularly intolerant state, to protest during the Freedom Summer protest of 1964. The purpose of this protest was to get the white students parents interested and involved as well as proving that African Americans and whites can work together. (Film: Eyes on the Prize) The African American community also used mass media coverage to their advantage. Some coverage that helped their cause included police dogs attacking children and the police beating young people.

The civil rights movement was the bursting bubble that had steadily grown from periods as early as 1865. The failure of reconstruction in the South after the Civil War is that it did not resolve the debate over the rights of former slaves. Slavery continued disguised as things like sharecropping. The rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is another example of the desire to revert to the system that existed prior to reconstruction. During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program, African Americans in the South received few benefits. This was in spite of Eleanor Roosevelt’s strict stance against lynching. African Americans never received a break. There are many examples of the ill treatment of African Americans throughout history. The civil rights movement was the response to this bubble of unresolved issues finally bursting.