Causes of the Civil War - Introduction

The American Civil War and particularly its causes are some of the most controversial topics interpreters face at cultural and historic sites today. When visitors approach interpreters with questions and challenges to the meaning of the Civil War, often times the interpreter is left searching for words.

Many of the misconceptions regarding the causes of the Civil War stem from the memory-making period immediately following the war's end. The North and South sought to come together and reconstruct not only the American South, but the memory of the war itself into a national narrative for unification. As an interpreter, you face the tough challenge of combining evolving scholarship, primary evidence, and your resources to help visitors better understand the complexities underlying the American Civil War. By returning to the root documents and words of the men and women who brought about the war, we can better understand why the conflict erupted, and the reasons 620,000 American lost their lives.

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Video created as an introductory piece for the Interpretive Development Program course "Interpreting the Causes of the Civil War" developed with Eppley Institute for Public Lands.

To view the full FREE course, visit: http://eppley.org/elearning/interpretation-1/civil-war

A transcript of this video is available at:
http://bit.ly/CWintro

These interviews were shot March-August 2010 with National Park Service interpreters across the country.

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Public Domain Notice: This video contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Cause
• Civil War
• Introduction
• Slavery
• National Park Service
• 150
• Interpreters
• Interpretations

[ItchMyFoot]

@555BERSERKER 555 -- I suggest you read what Jefferson Davis said the war was about. Read his book. He said it was NOT about any tariff. That's right, Davis ruled OUT any tariff issue, in his OWN BOOK. He said the war was about the SPREAD of slavery. The South demanded the SPREAD of slavery again and again, like maniacs never satisfied.

Read Southern books, newspapers, and documents. SOUTHERN LEADERS shouted the reason -- the SPREAD of slavery. PERIOD.

[555BERSERKER]

WRONG morrill tariff was the reason the southern states succeeded from the north not slavery. a 27% tax increase that the southern states couldn't survive paying. the 13th amendment abolishing slavery was adopted on DEC 6 1865 after the civil war ended. many southern slaves were freed before but President Abraham Lincoln kept his slaves up to the last day.