This paper explores the causes of the American Civil War, with particular focus on the experiences of women during the conflict from 1861 to 1865. It traces two major causes—Northern immigration and labor competition, and the Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision—before analyzing how women's roles diverged by region and class. Northern women became nurses and volunteers, while Southern women managed plantations and faced Union occupation. The paper examines the distinct adversities faced by elite white women, poor white women, and enslaved women, concluding that soldiers ultimately endured the war's harshest experiences.
From April 12, 1861, to April 9, 1865, America became engrossed in a bloody civil war. The conflict was fought for many reasons that came together to create increased hostilities and carnage. First, the influx of immigration in the 1850s brought a new labor force to the Northern states, offering them an alternative pool of cheap labor. While the South still believed that slavery was an ethical practice, it refused to end it (Kennedy, 2012).
A second cause was the Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford. Dred Scott was a slave who sought citizenship through the American legal system, but his case was denied in 1857. The decision was based on the legal interpretation that anyone who descended from Africa could not become American citizens. It also overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in all U.S. territories. This ruling meant that runaway slaves seeking refuge in free states could be pursued by bounty hunters and federal marshals, who began capturing and returning enslaved people to their masters. The result was a sense of outrage among abolitionists in the North (Graber, 2006).
Before the Civil War, women were influential in American society but had to go through tremendous hardship to prove themselves. In the South, women moved forward with planting and running family businesses while men fought. In the North, women became nurses and watched their families go off to war. This was the first time in history that women played a major role in a war. The term "true womanhood" was coined for those who served during the civil war, and as nurses, it brought about a new way of thinking surrounding their roles in society (Kennedy, 2012).
On both sides, many women volunteered in Rotary clubs and Christian Commissions. Their job was to make uniforms and organize supplies that would be sent to various battlefields. This work changed the roles that women would play in all future conflicts (Kennedy, 2012).
Not all women faced the same challenges during the war. White women in the Southern states who held elite positions could fill jobs that were reserved for men before the war. However, poor white women and enslaved women lived a totally different life. Many of them faced food shortages and had no way to support their families (Massey, 1966).
A few women found jobs in the textile industry or making ammunition and uniforms, but the Union Blockade shut down much of the Southern manufacturing economy. When economic collapse made it impossible to feed their families through legitimate work, some women began looting stores. The combination of advancing Union armies and massive slave desertions created additional upheaval, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation allowed slaves to leave plantations and move to locations under Northern control (Massey, 1966).
In my honest opinion, women did not have the worst experiences during the war. The group that was impacted the most are the soldiers who fought. They had to endure the hardships of fighting, harsh weather conditions, and changing political situations. These factors helped to make their experiences the most harrowing (Massey, 1966).
"Soldiers endured greater hardship than women"
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