Underlying the American Civil War (1861-1865) was the important question of whether slavery would be permitted in a nation that proclaimed all men were created equal. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 prompted the succession of several southern states, as Lincoln was the first Republican president to declare his abolitionist sentiments. The American Civil War began with the insurrection at Fort Sumter when the Confederate army open fired on the fort and finally ended four years later when Robert E. Lee (commander of the Confederate army) surrendered his troops to Ulysses S. Grant (commander of the Union army).
Mill finds himself frustrated by England’s views on the American Civil War and thus proclaims that it is his “obvious duty to be one of the small minority who protested against the state of public opinion” (200). The American Civil War was a significant time in Mill’s life, as he went on to support many abolitionist causes in his lifetime.
Sources:
“American Civil War -- Britannica Academic.” Accessed February 13, 2021. https://academic-eb-com.proxy.uchicago.edu/levels/collegiate/article/American-Civil-War/6104.
Mill, John. Autobiography. Edited by John M. Robson. London: Penguin Books, 1989.