Origins of the Civil War
American History Hit
History Hit
4.3 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The war between the Union and the Confederacy is a major turning point in the history of the United States. But why did it happen?
From slavery and states' rights, to economic, legislative, moral, and political issues, in this episode, Don and Professor Adam Smith explore how these intertwined issues triggered this devastating war.
Adam is a professor at the University of Oxford and Director of their Rothermere American Institute. He is also the host of podcast 'The Last Best Hope?' and author of 'The Stormy Present: Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1846-1865'.
Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A single ball of flame streaks across the South Carolina night, |
| 0:06.0 | tracing a chalk-like arc against the star-speckled permament. |
| 0:11.0 | The mortar thuds, exploding above Fort Sumter, briefly illuminating the five-sided fort of thick brick |
| 0:18.9 | and granite, topped by parapets that seems on any normal day to be floating peacefully in Charleston |
| 0:25.2 | Harbor. |
| 0:27.0 | This first shot from a Confederate artillery battery on James Island is intended as a signal, a beginning. |
| 0:34.7 | Here at 4.30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, |
| 0:38.9 | marking the commencement of what will become a 34-hour |
| 0:42.0 | bombardment of this federal fort. |
| 0:45.0 | The first shots of combat in the first battle of the American Civil War. |
| 0:57.0 | Hi everybody, you're listening to American history hit. Welcome. I'm Don |
| 1:03.8 | Wildman. The causes of the American Civil War have been the subject of historical |
| 1:09.2 | discussion and debate since the conflict began. Either the Civil War was an inevitable conflict, |
| 1:15.7 | undertaken to criminalize and destroy a hideous immoral practice, the enslavement and trafficking |
| 1:21.0 | of human beings, or it was fought over a legal and legislative |
| 1:24.8 | schism concerning the rights of states to govern their own economies versus the powers |
| 1:29.6 | imposed upon them by the U.S. government. Over time, these dual causes had the effect of splitting the debate and softening the argument. |
| 1:38.0 | After the southern surrender, as decades passed and the US struggled to reunite itself, the broader reasons behind |
| 1:45.2 | the South's insurrection were characterized, even romanticized, as a lost cause of a misunderstood |
| 1:51.9 | people seeking only to preserve a way of life once permitted |
| 1:55.3 | under the US Constitution. |
| 1:57.0 | Refer listeners to Gone With The Wind and a poor victimized Scarlet O'Hara forced to make her gown out of drapes. |
... |
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