Download Events Leading to the Civil War Outline

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Events Leading to the Civil War
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Regional differences: Slavery
Compromise of 1850
Fugitive Slave Act
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Election of 1852
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Dred Scott decision
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Raid on Harper’s Ferry
Election of 1860
Regional Differences
-Since the creation of the United States, conflict between the North and South was frequent. Many of the
conflicts revolved around slavery, tariffs, and states’ rights. These conflicts have been growing over the
years and help push America into the Civil War.
Slavery
Problems with the Missouri Compromise:
-U.S. gained more than 500,000 miles of territory after winning the Mexican-American War.
-President Polk wanted to extend the 36*30’ line to the west coast, but many people disagreed with the
idea of dividing the Mexican Cession in two parts- one free and one enslaved.
-Some people believed in popular sovereignty, the idea that political authority belongs to the people.
-They thought that the people of a state/territory should be able to decide on banning or allowing slavery.
Tariffs
-Tariffs divided the north and the south further because of how they affected their economies.
-High tariffs benefited Northern manufacturing by protecting against foreign competition, but hurt
Southerners by raising prices of manufactured goods. The Tariff of Abomination is an example of this.
States’ Rights
Since the creation of our country’s government we have argued over who should have more power- the
states or the national government. People in the South were strong advocates for states’ rights and believed
that the 10th Amendment gave the Southern states the right to own slaves. The people in the North believed
in a strong Federal government with more power of its citizens.
Sectionalism
-The Wilmot Proviso was a document that outlawed slavery in all parts of the Mexican Cession.
Representative David Wilmot drafted the Proviso and the northern controlled House approved it. The south
controlled the Senate, so the bill did not pass.
-The debate over the Wilmot Proviso showed growing sectionalism, or favoring the interests of one section
or region over the interests of the entire country.
Compromise of 1850
-After the California gold rush, California became eligible for statehood. Many Californians opposed slavery,
but adding it as a free state would upset the balance.
-Henry Clay came up with the Compromise of 1850. These are the main points of the compromise:
1) California = FREE state
2) The Mexican Cession would be federal land and popular sovereignty would decide on slavery
3) Texas would give up land east of the upper Rio Grande. In return, the government would pay Texas’s
debts from when it was an independent republic.
4) The slave trade (not slavery) would end in the nation’s capitol.
5) A more effective fugitive slave law would be passed.
Fugitive Slave Act
-Details of the newly passed Fugitive Slave Act:
 It made it a crime to help runaway slaves (6 months in prison/$1,000 fine) and allowed
officials to arrest those slaves in free areas.
-Reactions to the Fugitive Slave Act:
 Enforcement of this law began immediately.
 Thousands of African Americans who lived in the North fled to Canada in fear.
 This act upset northerners; they disliked the idea of a trial without a jury.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
-Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of Lyman Beecher, wrote a novel entitled Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It spoke out
powerfully against slavery.
-The novel electrified the nation, sparked outrage in the South, and increased abolitionist support.
Election of 1852
-Democrat Candidate:
 Franklin Pierce, a little known politician.
-Whig Candidate:
 Winfield Scott, a war hero from the Mexican-American War.
-Franklin Pierce promised to honor the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, which encouraged
southern support.
-Franklin Pierce won the election by a large margin.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
-With the support of President Pierce and the South, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. It
was a plan that would divide the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase into two territories, Kansas and
Nebraska, and allow the people in each territory to decide on the question of slavery (popular sovereignty).
This act eliminated the Missouri Compromise’s restrictions on slavery.
-As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, antislavery and pro-slavery forces rushed supporters to Kansas to
vote for a government that was either for or against slavery.
-This led to the formation of two governments in Kansas.
-“Bleeding Kansas”:
• An angry and armed population in Kansas.
• 800 pro-slavery settlers rode to the city of Lawrence to arrest the members of the antislavery government. They had fled, so they burned they destroyed the city.
• Abolitionist John Brown and his men killed 5 pro-slavery men in the Pottawatomie Massacre.
• Civil war broke out in Kansas and over 200 people were killed.
The Caning of Charles Sumner
-In Congress (1856), Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner criticized Southerners for pro-slavery fighting in
Kansas. The next day, South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks physically attacked and caned Sumner
on the floor of the Senate. Sumner was unconscious and unable to return to Congress for THREE years!!
-Northerners were outraged but Brooks only had to pay a $300 fine and was reelected to Congress by the
people of South Carolina!
Dred Scott Decision
-Dred Scott was a slave that sued for his freedom after his slaveholder died. He argued that he was free
because he lived in free territories with his slaveholder.
-The justices, a majority from the South, ruled that African Americans, free or slave, were not considered
citizens of the U.S., therefore they had no right to sue in a federal court. This was a PRO-SLAVERY decision.
-The court also stated that Congress could NOT outlaw slavery in the territories because of the Fifth
Amendment. The Fifth Amendment states that no one could be deprived of “life, liberty, or property.”
Why does this case matter?
-Increased sectional tensions
-Officially overturned the Missouri Compromise
-Increased the chance of the spread of slavery
-Declared that African Americans were not citizens.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
-The Whig Party dissolves and in 1854, the Republican Party forms to stop the spread of slavery.
-Stephen Douglas, a Democrat and former Illinois Senator is up for re-election. His opponent is Republican,
Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of debates.
-Lincoln argued that the central issue of the campaign was to stop the spread of slavery in the West.
-Lincoln felt that African Americans were entitled to all the natural rights listed in the Declaration of
Independence, but were not necessarily equal to whites.
-Douglas won reelection as Senator of Illinois, but these debates made Lincoln vital to the Republican Party.
Raid on Harper’s Ferry
-It was an incident in which abolitionist John Brown and 21 other men captured a federal arsenal in Harpers
Ferry, Virginia. He planned to start a slave rebellion and expected to kill any white Southerners in his way.
-No slaves joined him out of fear of punishment for taking part. Instead, local Southerners attacked Brown.
-Men on both sides were killed, but Brown and his remaining men were captured.
-Brown was tried and executed for treason, which caused many Northerners to mourn his death.
-Many southerners felt scared and began talking about leaving the Union.
Election of 1860
-Candidates:
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Republican Party: Abraham Lincoln
Northern Democrats: Stephen Douglas
Southern Democrat: John Breckinridge
Constitutional Union Party: John Bell
Who won the election? Abraham Lincoln
What did this election mean for the South?
 Southerners were angered! Lincoln did not campaign in their region or carry any southern states and
was still elected President.
 The election signaled that the South was losing its national political power.
The South Secedes
-Lincoln insisted that he would not change slavery in the South, but that slavery could not expand and would
eventually die out completely. This made Southerners angry.
-People in the South believed their economy and way of life would be destroyed without slave labor. Within
a week of Lincoln’s election, South Carolina’s legislature called for a special convention.
- The delegates considered secession, or formally withdrawing from the Union. Southern secessionists
believed that they had a right to leave the Union because each of the original states had voluntarily joined
the Union and could leave by the same process of holding a special convention.
-South Carolina (first in Dec. 1860), Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded to
form the Confederate States of America, also called the Confederacy in February 1861.
-Its new constitution guaranteed citizens the right to own slaves.
-Jefferson Davis from Mississippi was elected as president of the Confederacy.
Lincoln Takes Office
- President Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861. He believed that U.S. citizens had the power to change
their government through majority consent, but opposed the idea that the southern states could leave the
Union because they were unhappy with the government’s position on slavery.
-Lincoln announced in his inaugural address that:
 He would keep all government property in the seceding states.
 Tried to convince the South that his government would not provoke war.
 He hoped that Southern states would eventually return to the Union.