Download states

Catalysts of
the Civil War.
Meow.
You will need…
1. Something to write with
2. Your brain
• New additions to America (1820-1850): As new states are added
to the Union (Louisiana Purchase territory slowly becoming
individual states), congress had to decide if each state would be a
free or slave state. Each new addition threatened the delicate
balance of free and slave states, infuriated one side or the other,
and led to heated debate
• The decision as to whether a state should be free or slave
becomes an issue of state vs. federal power (should states have
the right to decide slavery for themselves?? 10th amendment =
state’s rights!!!).
The Missouri Compromise: write the info.
in the left column in your notes
It did accomplish the following:
However…
•
•
•
•
• The Missouri Compromise
pleased no one.
– Northern Congressman who
voted for it were ridiculed.
– In the South, the ban on
future slavery was deeply
resented.
• Nothing about the issue of
slavery itself was solved; this was
really a decision about POWER in
the senate!!
• “If the Union must be dissolved,
slavery is precisely the question
on which it ought to break. For
the present however, the contest
is laid to sleep.” John Quincy
Adams
Added Missouri as a slave state.
Added Alabama as a slave state.
Added Maine as a free state.
These choices made the balance
of power in the Senate at 12
states each.
• Drew a line across the Louisiana
Territory at 36°30’ (line of
latitude)- see map, next slide!
– North of this line, slavery was
to be forever banned (except
in Missouri).
– South of this line slaveholding
was permitted.
2. Fugitive Slave Laws
• Fugitive Slave Law (1850): STRICT Law
stating that all citizens had to help catch
runaway slaves or face a $1000 fine or 6
months in jail. Northerners resented being
forced to help capture runaway slaves.
Southerners were elated to get slaves back
but angry at lack of Northern support.
(Judges who sent slaves back to the South
were awarded with $10 for their work; but
only $5 if person in question was freed!!)
Fallout of the Fugitive Slave law…
• Many northerners did not obey the law,
angering southerners-- of the tens of
thousands of fugitives living in the North, only
299 were captured and returned to their
owners in the 1850s….yet another catalyst of
war.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852):
Outraged by the Fugitive
Slave Law, Harriet Beecher
Stowe addressed the
cruelty of slavery in the
book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It
sold over 300,000 copies in
its first year. This book
created more abolitionists.
• http://video.pbs.org/video/
2295592489/
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Opened the eyes of many to the brutality of
slavery.
• Made people more actively and openly
opposed to slavery.
• Made Southerners crabby; one man cut off his
slave’s ear and sent it to Harriet!
Bleeding Kansas
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): The remainder of the Louisiana
Purchase was divided into two separate territories, Kansas
and Nebraska. In each territory, popular sovereignty (voters)
would decide the question of slavery. This act repealed the
earlier Missouri Compromise where slavery was banned
North of Missouri. The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to violence
between proslavery and anti-slavery groups who each
rushed to the new territory to support their cause. Over 200
people died in pro-slavery vs. anti-slavery violence; some
call the Kansas-Nebraska Act the official start of the Civil
War.
“Bleeding Kansas”
The Dred Scott Decision 1857
• A Missouri SLAVE, named DRED SCOTT was suing for his
freedom (after his master died).
• Many years earlier, DRED SCOTT had traveled to FREE
territory (Wisconsin) with his owner and lived there for
several years (then back to MO).
• Because of his time spent in a free territory, according to the
MISSOURI Compromise, he was a free man.
• The Supreme Court of 1857 had 5 judges from the South
and 4 judges from the North.
Harpers Ferry
• Harper’s Ferry, VA (1859): John Brown, abolitionist, attempted
to start a slave revolt with 22 others at Harper’s Ferry, VA by
raiding a federal arsenal and taking hostages. The plan failed
and Brown was hanged, but Southerners began to fear
abolitionists and slave rebellions/uprisings.
• “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this
guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”—wrote
these words in a note that he handed to someone just before
his execution- ON YOUR NOTES, RESPOND THE THIS QUOTE
The election of Lincoln to President
• Lincoln was elected President in 1860 with just 40%
of the vote (all from the Northern states; Southern
votes were divided between three
candidates…Lincoln’s name didn’t even appear on
the ballot in some southern states!!). With his
election, the Southern states felt they had lost their
voice in government.
• When elected, Lincoln stated he would not interfere
with slavery in the South. He would even support
enforcement of the Fugitive-Slave law, but added…
• “Let there be no compromise on the question of extending
slavery.”
Secession
• The Confederate States of America (CSA) formed in 1861-even before Lincoln’s inauguration (March of ’61), seven
states seceded from the Union:
a. South Carolina
b. Mississippi
c. Florida
d. Alabama
e. Georgia
f. Louisiana
g. Texas
• Lincoln responded by saying…
– “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not mine, is the
momentous issue of civil war.”
The CSA chose Jefferson Davis as their
President, wrote their own Constitution, printed
their own money…..
This Means WAR!!
April 12th, 1861 – Confederate Troops fire on Fort
Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston, South
Carolina Harbor.
Finally, let’s color a map!
DRAW IN West Virginia
on your map!!!!!!