Download South based on wealth and being “born into the

Differences: North and South
Class Structure: North generally based on wealth; South based on wealth and being “born into the right family”
- Economy: Northern based on mining, industry, banks, stores, and railroads; Southern based on agriculture, including
cotton, rice, and indigo
Issues and Events that led to the Civil War
#1: Slavery- Most divisive issue that led to the Civil War
Practice of forcing a person, that was considered property, to work for you with no pay and with no rights. North
wanted it abolished (done away with); South supported it
- Cotton Gin increase cotton profits and led to a high demand for slaves in the South
- There were different classes of slaves- house servants compared to field workers
- Lived on plantation in huts, food usually left over from owner, poor conditions
- It was illegal for slaves to learn to read and write
#2 States Rights
The belief that the state’s interests should take precedence over the interests of the national government
- The North believed that the issues of the country were the most important, while the South believed in the idea of
states’ rights
#3 Nullification
Early 1800’s Congress passed protective tariffs to keep out competition. This raised the price of goods sold in the U.S.- Tariffs hurt the South because they didn’t have factories and relied on imported goods and blamed the tariffs for the
poor economy
--John C. Calhoun, U.S. Vice-President, wrote The South Carolina Exposition which said that a state could nullify (prevent
the enforcement) of a federal law.
- Calhoun believed that nullification provided a way for the South to protect slavery
- South Carolina challenged the enforcement of the tariff and called for a special convention
- The convention nullified the tariff and refused to collect and tariff taxes
- State threatened to set up a separate government outside the Union, if the federal government resorted to force
- Little support from other states, eventually compromised and Congress passed a new tariff that reduced rates
#4: Missouri Compromise
1819 22 states in the U.S. (11 free, 11 slave)- equal representation in the Senate
-Missouri Territory applied for statehood as a slave state
- Congress adopted the Missouri Compromise in 1820, which allowed Maine to enter as a free state and Missouri as a
slave state
- Compromise also prohibited slavery north of 36degree 30 minute latitude
- Goal was to keep balance of slave and free states in the Senate and provide a temporary solution to the slavery
question
#5: Compromise of 1850
Compromise between northern and southern states in 1850
- California would enter Union as a free state
- New Mexico territory would not become part of Texas or a guaranteed slave state
- The District of Columbia would no longer trade slaves, but slave owners there could keep their slaves
Runaway slaves could be returned to their owners in slave states
- Utah and New Mexico territories could decide if they wanted to allow slaves or not
The Georgia Platform – Statement from the Georgia Convention in response to the Compromise of 1850. Supported by
Union states, the Georgia Platform stated that the Southern states would agree to follow the Compromise of 1850 (and
not leave the Union) as long as northern states would no longer attempt to take away rights from southern states.
#6: Kansas-Nebraska Act
1854, Stephen Douglas brought the Act which created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska
- Contained a clause of Popular Sovereignty- mean when a territory applied for statehood, the people could vote if they
wanted to be a free state or a slave state
- Northerners were angry because this changed the Missouri Compromise
- 2 groups: Free soil were against slavery and wanted land used for farming; vs. pro slavery
-Fights broke out among the two groups
- Congress rejected Kansas’s bid for statehood, southerners realized the northern votes alone could keep slave states
from the Union
- Due to all the violence, the territory was called “Bleeding Kansas”
#7: The Dred Scott Supreme Court Case and Decision
- Court ruled that slaves were not citizens and could not file lawsuits
- Court also ruled that Congress could not stop slavery in the territories- Decision further separated the North and South
#8: Election of 1860
- Democrats could not agree on who to nominate so they split
- Northern Democrats nominate Stephen Douglas who supported popular sovereignty
- Southern Democrats nominate John Breckinridge who believed slavery should be allowed in all territories
- Whigs from border sate supported the Union and named John Bell as their candidate
- Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln- against slavery, supported a protective tariff, wanted to give western land to
settler, and constriction of the transcontinental rail road
- South did not benefit from any of these
- Lincoln won without winning a southern state
- Debate over secession in Georgia
- After Lincoln’s election, talk of secession (the act of pulling out of the Union) and war
- Most Georgians were for the Union, but favored state’s rights
- Governor Joseph Brown called for a legislative session to discuss if a special convention should be held to decided
secession
Georgians in Leadership
Alexander H. Stephens served as a Representative in Congress from Georgia from 1843-1859. During this time he spoke
against southern secession.
- Many opposed his thoughts, but some applauded his pleas for caution
- After the southern states seceded from the Union Stephens was elected as Vice President of the Confederate States of
America (CSA) in 1861.
- Governor Joseph E. Brown favored secession and used his terms as governor to prepare Georgia for war
- Robert Toombs and Thomas Cobb also supported immediate secession
- November 21, 1860 secession convention call, and Georgia voted to leave the Union
The Southern states who seceded met in Montgomery, Alabama in February, 1861; they formed the Confederate States
of America
The War Begins
- First shots fired on Fort Sumter, S.C. on April 12, 1861
- Union General surrenders fort to Confederates after supplies run out
Antietam
- Near the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland
- Northern and Southern armies battle on September 17, 1862
- First invasion of the north, led by Robert E. Lee (Confederate Troops)
- 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing after the 12 hour battle
- Bloodiest day of the war
- North’s George McClellan was victorious
The Emancipation Proclamation
September 22, 1862 (five days after Antietam), President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation
- Unless the South surrendered by January 1, 1863, “all slaves in states or districts in rebellion against the U.S. will be
thenceforth and forever free”
Gettysburg
July 1-3, 1863 in Pennsylvania resulted in a Union Victory, and ended Lee’s second invasion of the North
- 51,000 casualties, deadliest battle of the war
- Turning point of War
- Lee’s army retreated back to Virginia
Chickamauga
Late 1863, Union forces attack railroad center in Chattanooga
- September 19-20, Union General William Rosecrans led his troops against Confederate General Braxton Bragg
- Bragg’s army defeated the Union forces and forced the Union Army back into Tennessee
- Bragg didn’t chase the retreating Union troops and in November 1863, General Grant had arrived with reinforcements
and recaptured Chattanooga, forcing Bragg to retreat south to Dalton
- Union Blockade of Georgia’s Coast
- Union strategy was to blockade, or obstruct, all Confederate ports
- This would prevent South from selling cotton, and importing supplies from overseas
- Blockade runners bring in $200 million
- 1863, the South had to import everything - Difficult to get supplies -High prices
- Not enough medical supplies for civilians or army
- Rail lines destroyed, what little manufacturing the South had was not functional
- Life in the wartime South was very difficult
Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign
After Chickamauga, Grant moves east to battle Lee, leaving 112,000 men in Chattanooga under control of William T.
Sherman who began moving towards Atlanta
- Goal was to take out the railroads and industry
- Sherman’s troops faced Confederate troops under Joseph E. Johnston on way to Atlanta
- The two armies battled at Dalton, Resaca, Allatoona, Kennesaw mountain, and New Hope Church
- Shortages forced the Confederates to retreat south, burning bridges and blocking roads to slow Sherman’s progress
- Confederate President Jefferson Davis did not like Johnson's strategy and replaced him with John Bell Hood
- Hood attacked Sherman, losing over 11,000 men in two days
- Battle of Atlanta was July 22, fighting lasted through August
- September 1, the Union army moved into Atlanta
- November 15, around 3 o’clock, the set fire to the city
- The next day while Atlanta burned, Sherman’s troops began their “March to the Sea”
Sherman’s March to the Sea
Sherman’s army moved towards Savannah burning a 60 mile wide path
- Sherman destroyed military and civilian targets
- The “March to the Sea” lasted 2 months
- Estimated damage was $100 million
- December 22, 1864, Sherman presented President Lincoln the city of Savannah as a Christmas Gift
- Sherman had cut Lee’s army off from supplies
Andersonville
Confederate prison for Union soldiers
- 1864, General Grant stopped exchanging prisoners with South
- Dirty conditions
- No shelter
- Not enough food, water, or medical supplies
- Crowded
- During its 15 month life, 13,000 Union prisoners died
- Andersonville is now a national cemetery where 13,700 are buried
The War Ends
Lee surrenders on April 1, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse
- Estimated 750,000 casualties, 250,000 civilian casualties
- 30% of males 18-40 in South were killed in the war
- After the war, Lincoln had to find a way to reunite the country
- This process is knows as reconstruction and had many different parts
Freedmen’s Bureau
Former slaves faced great hardships
- In an effort to help struggling freedmen, the U.S. government established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands in March 1865
- Purpose was to help both former slaves and poor whites cope with everyday problems by offering them clothing, food,
and other necessities
- The bureau’s focus changed to helping Freedmen adjust to their new circumstances- Freedmen’s Bureau
Education
Help organized Morehouse College in Augusta, Clark College in Atlanta in 1867
Sharecropping
After the war farmers need workers for land
- Former slaves, landless whites needed jobs
- Landowners provided land, tools, seeds, ect. and the workers agreed to give the owner a share of the harvest.
- Sharecroppers often did had very little or no money once they paid off debt to the landowner
Tenant Farming
Similar to sharecropping
- Tenants usually owned some equipment and animals
- Bought own seed and fertilizer
- At the end of the year, tenant would pay a set amount of cash or agreed on crop
- Usually made a small profit
Reconstruction Plans
Lincoln’s Plan: “Ten-Percent Plan”
- Goal was to rebuild the South and restore the Union as quickly and easily as possible
- 2 Steps:
- All southerners, except for high-ranking Confederate civil and military leaders, would be pardoned after taking an oath
of allegiance to the U.S.
- When 10% of the voters in each sate had taken the oath of loyalty, the state would be permitted to form a legal
government and rejoin the Union
Congressional Plan
Congress and many northerners thought the South should be punished
- Lincoln’s assassination forced the Congressional Plan as the official Reconstruction Plan
- President Johnson appointed James Johnson as Georgia’s provisional governor because he opposed secession
- Radical Republicans wanted greater punishment for the South
- South had to approve the 13th Amendment
- Nullify their ordinances of secession
- Promise not to repay the individuals and institutions that helped finance the Confederacy
The Civil War Amendments
3 amendments passed and ratified to ensure the rights of former slaves
- 13th- Officially abolished slavery
- Discrimination still an issue
- Black codes- laws designed to restrict the rights of the freedmen
- 14th- granted citizenship to the freedmen and forbade any state from denying anyone the “equal protection of the
law”
- 15th- granted all male citizens the right to vote regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”
- Henry McNeal Turner and black legislators
- 1867, African Americans voted for the 1st time in Georgia
- 1868, they helped elect a Republican governor, 29 African Americans to the Georgia house of representatives, and 3
African Americans to the State Senate
--Henry McNeal Turner was one of the men elected, but all were kicked out in September of 1868 on the grounds that
they had the right to vote, but not hold political office
- During Reconstruction, blacks formed the largest group of southern Republicans
- Political empowerment- the ability to bring about change, many joined the Union League, the freedmen’s political
organization
The Ku Klux Klan
One of several secret organization in Georgia that tried to keep freedmen from voting
- Began in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865 as a social club for returning soldiers, but changed to a force of terror
- Members dressed in robes and hoods so no one would recognize them
- The Ku Klux Klan used intimidation to prevent many African Americans from voting in the election of 1868
- Governor Rufus Bullock asked the federal government for help
- Congress passed the Georgia Act in 1869 which returned Georgia to military control because of the KKK terrorism
against freedmen