compcontslave revolt essays

compcontslave revolt essays The American Civil War was inevitable and had numerous causes that led to it. This paper will discuss three important causes of the war the invention of the cotton gin, Nat Turner's rebellion, and the abolitionist movement toward ending slavery. There are many causes of the war, but I feel these three are substantial causes. Each of these events or movements created more tension between the North and the South and eventually war was unavoidable. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney had a great effect on slavery and agriculture in the South. The cotton gin was a machine that removed the seeds from the cotton. Removing the seeds from the cotton was a long and tedious process. This invention made processing cotton relatively fast and easy. The cotton gin's speed allowed the cotton plantations to produce massive amounts of cotton. This became very profitable. To support the harvesting of all of the cotton, more slaves were needed to run the cotton gins and harvest the cotton. This brought more slaves to America and boosted the population of slaves in the South. The increased number of slaves in the South actually helped heighten the problem with slavery. Slavery was becoming more evident and people were becoming more aware that slavery was wrong in both the North and the South. The next cause was a slave named Nat Turner and his actions. Nat was a slave who had found God and religion. Gradually he built a religious following that justified a slave revolt. On August 13, 1831, Turner says he saw a halo around the sun. He thought that this was a sign from God to begin the revolt. This was the beginning of Nat Turner's rebellion. On August 22, 1831, Nat Turner led eight slaves to the Travis's residence, a white family, and murdered five members of their family. The slaves then moved across the county murdering white plantation owners, their families, and other whites that crossed their path. A ...