Uncle Tom's Cabin Influence

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From April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865, the United States of America was divided into two separate factions that were at war with one another. One faction was comprised of mostly people from northern states; they were in opposition to slavery. On the other hand, there were people from southern states, who were strongly in support of the institution of slavery. However, this war began brewing several years before the first battle actually occurred. There were several political, social/cultural, and economic events that were the cause of the Civil War.
In 1794, the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney. The cotton gin was a machine that revolutionized the cotton industry because it significantly speeded up the process of removing seeds from cotton
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It contained accounts of the brutalities that slaves were subjected to. It was the second best-selling novel of the century, with 300,000 copies being sold in the United States within the first year of its publishing, and over one million sold in Britain. Martin Kelly, an American History Expert, said, “...[Uncle Tom’s Cabin] had a huge impact on the way that northerners viewed slavery. It helped further the cause of abolition, and even Abraham Lincoln recognized that this book was one of the events that led to the outbreak of the Civil War,” (Kelly). This novel opened many people’s eyes to how slaves were really being treated under the system of slavery. It was more than just a book, it was a call to action for many …show more content…
Lincoln agreed that the South was becoming too powerful, and he vowed that slavery would not be apart of any new states added to the Union. Following his election, seven states seceded from the Union. In February of 1861, representatives from each of these states formed a new nation known as The Confederate States of America. Two months later, the Confederacy attacked the Union at Fort Sumter; this was the first official battle of the war. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the tipping point. The North and the South had finally split into two separate nations, and they had declared war on one