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“Horseman
in the Sky” is a poignant story in which we see a father and a son on opposite
sides in a civil war. The story aises the issue of how difficult it can
be to hold to one’s rinciples. Is one loyal to one’s cause or to one’s family?
This becomes an agonizing choice when these two loyalties are pitted against
each other.
Background
of the American Civil War:
Before the
war, there were really two Americas－an industrial north and an agricultural
south. Conflicting interests between the two became increasingly apparent.
Southerners attributed their backwardness to northern expansion. Northerners,
on the other hand, declared that slavery was responsible for the region’s
backwardness. For the middle 1840s, the slavery issue overshadowed all else
in American politics. The majority of southern planters came to regard slavery
as necessary and permanent. But more and more people believed that slavery
was morally wrong. They organized a powerful anti-slavery movement and demanded
slavery be abolished. In 1845, the acquisition of Texas and soon after,
the territorial gains in the southwest resulting from the Mexican War, converted
the moral question of slavery into a political issue. Should the new territories
join the Union as slave states or free states? Senator Henry Clay, who twice
before in times of crisis had come forward with compromise arrangements,
now once again solved the problem with a compromise. However, the fear many
had of the expansion of slavery into the new western lands grew. The slavery
issue became more bitter when Mrs. Stowe published her book “Uncle Tom’s
Cabin” in 1852, which exerted a great influence on people.
Abraham
Lincoln, who had long regarded slavery as an evil, was elected President
of the United States in 1860. In response, South Carolina seceded from the
Union and a few other southern states followed its example. Feb.8, 1861,
they formed the Confederate States of America. On March.4, 1861, in his
inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln refused to recognize the secession. His
speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of Union. But the
south turned deaf ears to it, and on April 12, guns fired on Fort Sumter
in Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War thus started.
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English
Intensive Reading 
Introduction
