Short answers-2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Short answers-2 - Essay Example Opposite of the black codes, the 14th Amendment was designed to offer more freedoms to the former black slaves after the Civil War. This amendment also ensured that due process was undertaken in the legal system for those on trial or accused of criminal behavior. This was the belief, during the middle portion of the 19th Century, that the United States was wholeheartedly destined to expand the country from the Eastern seaboard all the way to the Pacific coastline. This belief led to the America we know today in terms of size and scale. Believing that cotton was the most important crop in the Southern states during the Civil War era led to the phrase King Cotton which was used by politicians (and others) to express the importance of securing the Southern economic future in relation to agriculture. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, and was assassinated in 1865. Lincoln wholeheartedly opposed slavery and did not want the country to go to war against itself, issuing many publicized proclamations condemning the potential act prior to the start of the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln radically changed the face of slavery during his short stint as president, declaring slaves to be free men. During the reconstruction phase of the South after the war, Lincoln was instrumental in assisting in creating policies designed to re-integrate the South back into the country in terms of agriculture and industry. Slavery was the primary issue leading to the Civil War, with most Southerners believing that slavery was a vital aspect of ensuring a strong agricultural and industrial future, while most of the Northern citizens believed slavery to be immoral and against religiously-inspired freedoms. Further, the South believed in their own superiority in many ways, thus they thought they had a right or destiny to break free of the North (succession) and start their own political and national