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SECTIONALISM
1820-1861
Roots of Sectionalism
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Slavery had been an issue in the U.S. decades before
the Civil War, dating back to the writing of the
Constitution.
The Constitution’s Three-Fifths Compromise (3/5 of all slaves
count towards a state’s representation in Congress)
 The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 declared all lands north
of the Ohio River would be free of slaves, leaving slavery
allowable in the south.
 The Missouri Compromise (1820) declared that Missouri
(from the Louisiana Territory) would enter the Union as a
slave state and Maine as a free state with slavery being
banned permanently below the 36’30 line in the LA Territory
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Enslaved Americans, 1790-1860
Year
Slave
Population
1790
697,681
1800
893,602
1810
1,191,362
1820
1,538,022
1830
2,009,043
1840
2,487,355
1850
3,204,313
1860
3,953,760
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Two Ways of Life: The North and South
The North
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¼ live in urban areas
Large population due to
immigration
High literacy rate (95%)
Industrial society
Included 2/3 of all RR lines
Opposed the expansion of
slavery
Favored govt. intervention in
economic and social issues
Mainly Republican Party
The South
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1/10 live in urban areas
Smaller population
Lower literacy rate (50%)
Slave Labor important for the
agrarian society
Exported raw materials to slave
states and Europe
Favored expansion of slavery
Opposed govt. intervention in
economic and social issues
Mainly Democratic Party
The Abolition Movement
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2nd Great Awakening encouraged many northerners to
view slavery as a sin.
American Colonization Society (1830) – founded on
the idea of transporting freed slaves to an African
colony.
This idea was popular among antislavery reformers and
politicians who disliked slavery but did not want African
Americans in the U.S.
This movement was unsuccessful due to the growth in
slavery (grew from 1.5 million in 1820 to 4 million in
1860.
Only 12,000 slaves were relocated to Africa
The Abolition Movement (cont.)
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Another abolition group, the American Antislavery
Society was led by William Lloyd Garrison.
He began publishing The Liberator, an abolitionist
newspaper in 1830
He called for the immediate abolition of slavery
Members of the American Antislavery Society believed
in:
Take direct action to end slavery – don’t wait for political
change
 Pushed for free states to break from slave states and form
an anti-slavery nation.
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The Abolition Movement (cont.)
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Frederick Douglas was another prominent
abolitionist of the Antebellum period.
Douglas was a former slave who pushed for a
direct end to slavery through political and legal
means.
To help spread his ideas, he started an anti-slavery
paper called The North Star.
Both Garrison and Douglas represent abolitionist
efforts in the North – end slavery through moral,
political and legal methods.
Early Abolitionists
William Lloyd Garrison
Fredrick Douglas
Abolitionist Sojourn Truth
Born Isabella Baumfree (17971883)
Biography
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Parents were captured in Ghana and brought
into slavery through New York.
Isabella was sold at 9-years-old, and sold
twice more before she ran to freedom in 1826.
Once free, she successfully sued a white man
for illegally selling her son to a man in
Alabama. 1st successful lawsuit by a freed
slave woman.
Became an avid abolitionist with Garrison and
Douglas and changed her name is 1843 to
Sojourner Truth.
1851-Truth’s famous speech, “Ain’t I a
Woman?” to the Ohio Women’s Rights
Convention.
In the Civil War, she fought for freed slaves to
be able to fight, and for desegregation in
Washington, DC
The Nat Turner Rebellion (1831)
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Nat Turner represents the dangers of the abolition
movement in the South.
Turner was a Virginia slave who organized and led
a slave rebellion that resulted in the death of 55
whites.
In retaliation, whites killed hundreds of slaves
Fear of similar slave revolts ended the majority of
abolition movements in the South.
The Underground Railroad
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Most Northerners accepted slavery where it already
existed, but objected to extending slavery into new
territories and states (the “Free-Soil” position).
Radical abolitionists wanted to end slavery everywhere,
and were ready to help slaves liberate themselves by
establishing a network of escape routes and safe
houses for runaways.
An escaped slave turned abolitionist named Harriet
Tubman was the best known “conductor” on the
Underground Railroad running 19 missions from the
south to the north saving over 300 slaves.
The Compromise of 1850
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In 1849, California applied for admission to the Union
as a free state which would tip the balance of power in
Congress toward the North.
Some southern states talked of withdrawing from the
Union.
Henry Clay proposed the Compromise of 1850:
Admit California as a free state
 Divide the Southwest into 2 territories (New Mexico and
Utah) both open to slavery
 Ended slave trade in Washington, D.C., but allowed existing
slave holders to keep their slaves
 Included the Fugitive Slave Law
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The Fugitive Slave Law (1850)
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The Fugitive Slave Law required the return of
escaped slaves to their owners
The law allowed southern slave catchers to come
north to retrieve escaped slaves and required
northerners to come to the aid of these slave
catchers or face fines or imprisonment
Many northerners felt the law was immoral and
refused to obey it
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
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Friction between the north and south was further
intensified by the publication of Harriet Beecher
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852.
The book told the story of a slave through three
slaveholders with the last one who abused Uncle Tom
and had him beaten to death for refusing to tell where
two escaped slaves were hiding
Stowe hoped her novel would bring a quick end to
slavery, but it just raised hostility toward the South and
the South argued that it was inaccurate and an insult to
their way of life.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
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Stephen Douglas (IL Senator) introduced a bill to
organize the Great Plains for settlement.
Two new territories (Kansas and Nebraska) would
be organized on the basis of popular sovereignty,
which mean a state vote would decide the issue of
slavery in each state.
The North send Free-Soilers and the south sent other
agitators to influence the vote in Kansas
The Struggle over Slavery in Kansas
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May 21, 1856-southern agitators called “border
ruffians” crossed into Kansas from Missouri and raided
the Free-Soil town of Lawrence, KA burning buildings,
looting stores and destroying printing presses.
The next day, Representative Preston Brooks (MA)
attacked Senator Charles Sumner (SC) on the Senate
floor breaking a cane over Sumner’s head days after
Sumner’s speech condemning slavery in KA (SumnerBrooks Affair)
Two days later, antislavery activist John Brown led 7
men to attack the proslavery town of Pottawatomie,
killing 5
The Sumner-Brooks Affair (1854)
Tragic Prelude-John Steuart Curry
Depicting John Brown’s Raid to keep Kansas “free soil”—Bleeding Kansas
Scott v. Sandford (1857)-Dred Scott Case
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In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet sued their
owner for their freedom because they had lived with
their owner in the free territory of Wisconsin for several
years—living in a free territory had made them free
people
In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that Scott could not
bring a suit into federal court because AfricanAmericans were not U.S. citizens and that slaves are
private property under the 5th Amendment. Ultimately
the Court considered the Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional and opened up all territories to slavery.
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
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Dred Scott led radical abolitionists like John Brown to
believe that slavery would never be ended by legal
means.
In 1859, Brown provoked an armed uprising of slaves
to free themselves.
With 21 other men, Brown seized the federal arsenal at
Harper’s Ferry, VA, intending to give the weapons to
slaves to spark a slave revolt.
Federal troops stormed the arsenal capturing John
Brown and his men. Tried for treason, Brown was
executed while northerners saw him as a hero and a
martyr and the south feared slave rebellions.
Candidates in the Election of 1860
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4 candidates
Stephen Douglas (IL) of the Northern Democrats who
backed popular sovereignty in the territories
 John C. Breckinridge (KY) of the Southern Democrats who
wanted slavery in all territories
 John Bell (TN) of the Constitutional Union Party who tried to
avoid the issue of slavery
 Abraham Lincoln (IL) of the Republican Party who opposed
slavery (Lincoln lost a run for the IL Senate position after the
Lincoln-Douglas Debates in 1858 where Lincoln
condemned slavery as a “moral, social, and political wrong.”
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Lincoln-Douglas Debates for IL Senator
Outcome in the Election of 1860
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Lincoln won the Presidency with less than 40% of the
votes because of the split in the Democratic Party and
the fact that his name did not appear on most ballots in
the southern states.
Southerners feared a Republican in the White House
thinking Congress would try to abolish slavery. There
were cries of secession by an unorganized group of
extremist pro-slavery southern politicians called the Fire
Eaters. They also wanted to restore international slave
trade which had been illegal since 1808.
Secession
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Lincoln tried to calm southern fears saying that he
wouldn’t interfere with slavery in the south and he
would support enforcement of the Fugitive Slave
Law, but he refused to support slavery in the
territories.
Dec. 20, 1860-South Carolina seceded from the
Union. Six other southern states seceded within
weeks, forming the Confederate States of America
with Jefferson Davis as president.
WAR!
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In his inaugural address in March 1861, Lincoln
declared that secession was wrong and
unconstitutional, and that he had no legal right to
interfere with slavery in states where it already
existed.
April 12, 1861-Southern forces opened fire on Fort
Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston harbor
beginning the Civil War.