"We are not one people. We are two peoples. We are one people for freedom and one people for slavery. Between the two, conflict is inevitable." This quote from abolitionist writer George William Curtis, in 1861, describes the state of the nation before the Civil War. If not for the naval blockades, lack of road infrastructure, and poor manufacturing capabilities of the South, perhaps the outcome of the Civil War would have been different and slavery might have continued. The War of Attrition was successful in strangling the South's lifelines, ending the Civil War, and reuniting the country, thereby ending the evils of slavery. There were several reasons why the North won the Civil War. One of the main reasons was the blockade of Confederate ports from 1861 to 1865. After the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, US Secretary of State William Henry Seward proposed this naval blockade to President Lincoln, which would prevent the Confederate states from exporting their cotton crop and importing valuable war supplies and basic necessities such as weapons, military tents, blankets and food. The United States could have decided to close ports because a nation does not block its own ports. However, under international law, a country was not allowed to stop and search international traffic. For this reason the North decided to block the ports, a decision that had a dual purpose. First, it allowed the North to carry out lawful stops and searches of ships under the protection of international law. Second, the Confederate States were recognized as an independent nation by foreign governments. The blockade began with very few ships attempting to block entry to major ports. Eventually other ships... middle of paper... yet they firmly believed they could win. Despite numerous disadvantages, the South entered the war with some important advantages. The South adopted a strategy similar to that of George Washington during the American Revolution. The plan, known as attrition, involved a strategy for winning the war by avoiding losing. That is, the South did not have to match the North's resources, they just had to avoid large-scale battles and prolong the war by making it too costly for their opponents. The North was simply better at maintaining the two most important elements of winning a war: men and weapons. They didn't have better tactics or leadership, they just had more men. Thus, the North won the American Civil War due to having greater manpower and resources, although the South maintained more stable and efficient leaders and military strategies.