Download The Road to Secession

The Road to Secession
Now that Texas was full of immigrants from the
Southern United States…it’s time to learn about
the differences facing the two sides….
The year is 1860…
The lives of people living
the the North…
were very
different than that
of people living in
the South…
LIFE IN THE NORTH
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Industrial economy
Growth of cities
Railroads increased commerce
Yankee clippers increased foreign trade
New machines helped produce more goods
Wave of immigrants supplied labor
Larger Population
LIFE IN THE NORTH
Industrial Economy
Growth of Cities
According to the map, where are the cities with a population of more
than 250,000 located? The cities with 50,000-250,000?
Railroads and Increased Commerce
Yankee Clippers
Increased Foreign
Trade
New machines helped produce
more goods
Bates Mill workers in the late 19th century in Maine. The
cotton fiber is sent through "combers" and other machinery
that gradually reduces it in size until the desired thread
thickness is reached. Photography courtesy of the Lewiston
Public Library.
Wave of immigrants
supplied labor
LIFE IN THE SOUTH
• Agricultural economy
• Few large cities
• Limited industry & transportation
• “Cottonocracy” & King Cotton
• Invention of the cotton gin increased
planters’ profits
• African Americans enslaved
• Plantation System
• Smaller Population
Agricultural Economy
Few large cities
Limited industry & transportation
“Cottonocracy” & King Cotton
1836-1840
$321 million
1856-1860
$744.6 million
43% of total
U.S. exports
54% of total
U.S. exports
Cotton Diplomacy In The Civil War
Almost unanimously, Southerners believed they could use cotton to lure England and France into recognizing the Confederacy. Since
the administration of Jefferson Davis wanted to avoid any appearance of international "blackmail," the Confederate Congress never formally
approved an embargo, but state governments and private citizens voluntarily withheld the crop from the market in hopes of causing a "cotton
famine" overseas. Theoretically, widespread shortages would shut down European mills, forcing governments to recognize and perhaps come
to the military aid of the Confederacy, or to declare the Union blockade ineffective and disregard or break it in order to reopen Southern
ports.
The "King Cotton" mentality was seriously flawed, not the least in overestimating the value of "white gold." First, a bumper crop in
1860 had glutted the marketplace, lowering prices and allowing mill owners to stockpile. Cotton prices did rise sharply late in 1861, but
workers, not owners, suffered from the effects of unemployment. Producers, drawing from their reserves, did not feel the pinch until late in
1862, and within a year imports from India, Egypt, and Brazil sufficiently replaced Southern cotton. Second, Davis, never an astute diplomat,
failed to recognize how much Europe feared the possibility of war with the U.S. Private European citizens and industrialists invested in
speculative ventures tenuously backed by Southern cotton securities, but their governments would not antagonize the North by recognizing
the Confederacy for the sake of guaranteeing those investments or increasing supplies of the staple. Further, Southern society tied cotton
inseparably to slavery, and England, the example Napoleon Ill would follow, led the abolitionist movement in the world community.
Europe's wait-and-see attitude hardened into unassailable neutrality after the Southern armies suffered reverses beginning at Gettysburg,
and Davis and his supporters realized the cotton strategy had failed as a diplomatic tool. They had unwisely hoarded their one great asset and
undermined their best chance of financing the war.
Invention of the Cotton Gin
Increased Planter’s Profits
Before cotton can be spun into yarn or thread and woven into cloth, the fibers must be separated from
their seeds. In 1793 Eli Whitney had invented the cotton gin, a shortened term for "cotton engine."
Whitney's patented machine featured a wooden cylinder with iron teeth or spikes, a grooved
breastwork of brass or iron through which the spikes could pass but the seeds could not, and a brush
cylinder behind the breastwork to clear cotton fibers from the spikes. Ginned seed cotton, or lint, was
carried in baskets or allowed to fall into a lint room for storage. The lint was then packed by foot or
wooden pestle into a sack and taken to market. H. Ogden Holmes, a South Carolina mechanic, received
a patent in 1796 for improvements to the cotton gin that included saw disks passing between flat metal
ribs and continuous emptying of the roll box, ginning principles in use today. The cotton gin enabled a
worker who had formerly cleaned five pounds of cotton a day by hand to "gin" fifty pounds of cotton a
day. The success of the cotton gin led to increased production of short-staple cotton throughout the
South.
This diagram shows how the cotton gin worked. Hooks on the cylinder removed the
seeds from the cotton.
Did the cotton go through the brushes before or after the seeds were removed?
African Americans enslaved
Plantation System
Draw a Venn Diagram in your
notebook and do the following:
Life in the North
Life in the South
In Common?
Most Northerners who were
opposed slavery joined the
Republican Party
The Republican Party favored
high tariffs, a homestead act
and internal improvements
Abraham Lincoln was a
Republican
Southerners who supported slavery
joined the Democratic Party
The Democrats favored sovereignty –
they said sovereignty rested with the
states not the federal government
The states entered the Union
voluntarily and they should be able to
leave voluntarily, too
Southerners said if Abraham Lincoln
gets elected President in 1860 they
will secede from the Union
When he got elected, six of the states
made good on their promise… now it
was time for Texas to decide
Texas has a decision to make: Should they remain with the Union (United States) or secede?
Current Governor of Texas: Sam Houston
His feelings toward secession: We should remain with the United States. It was the only way Texas would
survive and prosper.
TX officials feelings toward secession: The United States did not respect the individual states’ rights to
govern themselves so we should secede.
TX officials actions:
1.
The called a convention without Houston’s approval
Results: The Texas Secession Convention on January 28, 1861
2.
Wrote the Texas Ordinance of Secession which was a state law that declared that the United States had
abused its power and said that Texas wanted to secede.
Results: Texans voted on it and it passed. We seceded from the Union on February 23, 1861
Convention in Montgomery, Alabama:
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Most important things to come out of the convention in Alabama?
1.
They formed a new nation and called it The Confederate States of America (CSA)
2.
They elected officials: President = Jefferson Davis
3.
Wrote a Constitution for the new nation (sound familiar?)
What did it say?
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The states were given more power than they had when they were part of the US
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Protected slavery in the Southern States