Download Causes of the Civil War

The Causes of the U.S.
Civil War
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• NW Ordinance
• Missouri Compromise
• Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion
• Nullification Crisis
• Mexican American War
• Wilmot Proviso
• Manifest Destiny
• Underground Railroad
• Fugitive Slave Act
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• Compromise of 1850
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Bleeding Kansas/John Brown
• Dred Scott
• 1860 Presidential Election
• Secession of Southern states
• Battle of Fort Sumter
Just Because….
Review of
Compromises
• Missouri Compromise:
• Compromise of 1850:
• Kansas-Nebraska Act:
• Fugitive Slave Act:
• ***The goal was to keep the number of slave and non-slave
states equal in the union. Each new territory that applied
for statehood threatened this balance of power***
John Brown
Wilmot Proviso
• Proposed to the House by David Wilmot in 1846.
• “Slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in
the lands won during the Mexican-America war.
• Wilmot himself was quite racist, but wanted California
to be a place where free people could work without the
competition of slave labor.
• The House passed the Wilmot Proviso several times,
but division in the Senate prevented it from ever
becoming law.
Who is this
man?
Why is he
significant
?
Nat Turner
• Lead a slave rebellion that was one of the bloodiest and most
effective in American history.
• Began August 21, 1831 in Southampton Virginia.
• Over the course of 2 days, insurrections moved from plantation to
plantation.
• 60 whites were killed and over 200 slaves would be executed for
their role in the rebellion.
• Nat Turner would escape capture until October, but would
eventually be executed as well for his role.
• Instead of making conditions for slaves better, many states
tightened their laws regarding slaves.
Who is this
man?
Why is he
significant?
Dred Scott Decision
• Was a slave in Missouri, but moved to Illinois (free
state) and to a free area in Louisiana.
• Upon returning to Missouri in 1856, Scott sued for his
freedom, claiming that living in a free territory had
made him a free man.
• What do you think-was Dred Scott a slave or free
man????
Dred Scott Decision
• This case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court.
• Scott’s master claimed that anyone of “negro” decent
could not be considered a citizen of the United States
of America under Article III of the Constitution.
• The Supreme Court ruled against Scott 7-2, using
citizenship as their reason and stated that the Missouri
Compromise was in fact, unconstitutional.
States’ Rights
• Defined as: political powers reserved for the U.S. state
governments rather than the federal government,
according to the U.S. Constitution.
• States’ Rights as a cause of the war?
• The issue, of course, is over slavery and as new territories
became states, would they become a slave or free state?
• Southern states believed that states had the right to
choose slavery, Northern states felt that slavery should be
abolished.
Sectionalism
• Defined as: loyalty to one’s own region or section of
the country, instead of the country as a whole.
• North: industrial (lots of factories and railroads),
urban
• South: plantation agriculture based on slave labor.
Nullification
• Defined as: the refusal of a U.S. state to recognize or
enforce a federal law within it’s boundaries.
• Nullification Crisis of 1832-33 over the Textile Tariff
(or what would be called the Tariff of Abominations).
• South Carolina, lead by John C. Calhoun will ignore
the tariff.
• President Jackson was willing to send federal troops
into South Carolina in order to uphold this tariff.
Economic
Differences: North
and South
• North:
•
•
•
•
•
Soil and climate favored small farms
Industry flourished with lots of natural resources
Large cities established (New York largest)
By 1860, 25% of Northerners lived in urban areas
Work in factories, fueled by European immigrants, not
slaves.
• 2/3 of railroads located in the North provided excellent
transportation.
• Children in the North were more likely to attend school
than in the South (more professional careers come from
this)
Economic
Differences: North
and South
• South:
• Fertile soil and warm climate made the South ideal for
large scale farms (or plantations).
• 80% of the labor force worked on a farm
• 2/3 of Southerners owned no slaves, but slavery became
a peculiar institution (part of Southern culture)
• Agriculture had been so profitable that Southerners saw
littler reason to industrialize.
• Only major city was New Orleans.
• Transportation was difficult and was mostly done by
water.
Abolitionists
• Definition:
• Major reasons against slavery:
• Famous abolitionists
•
•
•
•
Frederick Douglass
Sojourner Truth
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Tubman
Uncle Tom’s
Cabin…or Life Among
the Lowly
• Famous anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher
Stowe.
• Written in response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave
Act.
• Most popular novel of the 19th Century, 2nd most
popular book sold behind the bible.
• “So this is the little lady who started this great war”.
Lincoln Douglas
Debates
• A series of 7 debates between Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen A. Douglas for the 1858 senate election in Illinois.
• Douglas was the incumbent Democratic senator, Lincoln
was relatively unknown.
• Lincoln would make his famous “House Divided” speech.
Douglas would promote compromises as a way to prevent
war.
• “A house divided against itself cannot stand”
• Lincoln will lose the election in 1858, but will win (against
Douglas again!) the presidential election in 1860.
Lincoln’s Election
• Ran for president on an anti-slavery platform
• Elected in 1860 without the support of a single
Southern state.
• Secession Defined: The act of withdrawing from an
organization, union or a political union.
• Lincoln and the North fought instead of allowing the
secession of the Southern states.
• This wasn’t based on slavery, but Lincoln felt it was his
sacred duty to protect the Union at all cost.
Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of
the U.S.
Jefferson
Davis/Confederacy
• 1st and only President of the Confederate States of America.
• From Mississippi: military and political experience
• House of Representatives-left position to fight in the MexicanAmerican War
• Secretary of War
• Senate
• Left the Senate on January 21st, 1861 when Mississippi
seceeded from the Union.
• Was elected President one month later as a compromise
candidate.
Fort Sumter
• Charleston, South Carolina
• When SC seceeded from the union (Dec. 1860), Major Anderson
moved his troops to a more fortified location, to Fort Sumter.
• His troops only had 6 weeks of supplies remaining in March of
1861.
• The South demanded the fort’s surrender on April 11th, 1861 and
Anderson refused.
• At 4:30 am on April 12th, the first shots of the Civil War began.
The South bombed the fort for 34 hours.
• On April 13th, General Anderson and the Union troops officially
surrendered.
Fort Sumter
What were the
Causes of the Civil
War?
• 1. Economic and social differences between the North
and South.
• 2. States vs Federal Rights
• 3. Fight between Slave and non-Slave state proponents.
• 4. Growth of the abolition movement
• 5. Election of Abraham Lincoln