Download The Civil War

Introduction Video
The North vs the South
The Union (North)
• Nickname: The Yankees
• Led by General Meade, then General Ulysses
Grant
• Insisted on keeping slavery out
of new states
• Confederacy attacked first at
Fort Sumter
The Confederacy (South)
• Nickname: the Rebels
• Led by General Lee
• Insisted on the right to
keep slavery
• Wanted individual states’
rights
• Lost the Battle of Gettysburg turning point in the
war
• General Lee surrendered at Appomattox
Courthouse in Virginia on April 9, 1865
The Main Causes of the Civil War
Slavery
• Was the main issue that all other issues
stemmed from
• Main cause of the war
Nat Turner’s Revolt
• Southampton County,
Virginia
• Turner led 70slaves in
Virginia in an uprising
• 55 whites were killed
• The rebel slaves were
captured
• Revolt caused whites to
form mobs, about
200 blacks were killed
Results of the Revolt
• Southern states tightened slave laws
• Fear of other revolts spread throughout the
South
• More Northerners began to support the
abolition of slavery
Economics
North
• People made money in
factories
• People made money in
businesses
South
• People made money from
cotton
• Cotton was grown on
plantations
• Slaves were needed to work
on plantations
The Compromises
Missouri Compromise 1820
• Missouri became a slave
state
• Maine became a free state
• Slaves would not be allowed
above the 360 30’ latitude
line
• States above the line were
free, states below the line
were slave states
• Worked until 1850 when
California wanted to
become a state
Compromise of 1850
• California wanted to
become a state but the line
cut it in half – became a
free state
• States could vote on
becoming free or slave
states
• Fugitive Slave Law was
passed
• Buying and selling slaves in
Washington D.C. was now
illegal, can still own them
Fugitive Slave Law
• Any slaves escaping from the South to the North
could be captured and returned to their masters
in the South
• At times free blacks were captured by Bounty
Hunters
• If someone resisted a Bounty Hunter they could
be punished
• Many slaves fled to Canada
(different government)
• Temporarily kept the nation
united
Underground Railroad
• Abolitionists helped slaves escape to the North
• Underground
Rail Road
• Fredrick Douglas
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• By Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852
• Purpose
– “I would write something that would make this
whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery
is.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe after the passage of
the Fugitive Slave Law Act
• Impact
– Book helped Northerners and Europeans to see all
slave owners as inhuman and cruel
Kansas Nebraska Act – introduced by
Stephen Douglas
What the North got
• Southern support for a
northern transcontinental
railroad
What the South got
• Popular Sovereignty would
be used to decide if slavery
would be allowed in the
Kansas and Nebraska
territories.
• Missouri Compromise had
forbidden slaver in these
territories.
Bleeding Kansas
• People killed each other over the results of an
election that allowed slavery in Kansas
because of unfair voting
• Result of the Kansas Nebraska Act
Founding of the Republican Party
• July 1854
• Upset with the Kansas Nebraska Act, members
of the Free Soil, Whig, and Democratic Parties
joined together to create the Republican Party
• They opposed the expansion of slavery into
the new territories
Election of 1856
Republican Candidate
• John C. Freemont
– “Free soil, free speech free
men, free labor.”
Democratic Candidate
• James Buchanan
• Individual states and
territories should decide on
the future of slavery within
their borders
• He won
Dred Scott Decision - 1857
• Scott was a slave in
Missouri
• His master took him to
Wisconsin, a free state,
and then returned to
Missouri
• Scott sued
saying he
should be free
• Supreme Court Decision
– Scott was not a U.S.
citizen, so he could not
sue
– Slaves were property so
the government could
not exclude slavery from
any state
– The Missouri
Compromise was
unconstitutional
Lincoln-Douglas Debates - 1858
Abraham Lincoln
Stephen Douglas
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Both were vying for the U.S. Senate seat for
Illinois
• Agreed to debate each other 7 times
• Slavery was the main topic in the debates
• Douglas won the election, but Lincoln gained
national attention and the 1860 Presidential
nomination for the Republican Party
John Brown’s Raid
• October 16, 1859
• Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
• John Brown, his sons and former slaves
attacked the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry
• He wanted to use the weapons to arm Virginia
slaves to revolt against their masters
• They failed, were captured and executed by
hanging
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Letters
Newspaper clips
Eyewitness account
Election Before the War
1860
The North and South had different
candidates
Election of 1860
Northern Democratic Candidate
Southern Democratic Candidate
• Stephen Douglas
• John Breckinridge
– Enforce the Fugitive Slave Act
– Allow territories to vote on
the practice of slavery
– Unrestricted expansion of
slavery
– Annexation (taking over) of
Cuba
Election of 1860
Republican Candidate
• Abraham Lincoln
– No expansion of slavery
– Protective tariffs
– Internal improvements
Constitutional Union Party
Candidate
• John Bell
– Preserve the Union
Election of 1860 Results – Who won?
Abraham Lincoln
Southern States Secede
• December 20, 1860
– South Carolina voted to secede from the Union
• Many Southerners in President Buchanan’s
cabinet resigned and his administration fell
apart
• When Buchanan became president, there
were 32 states in the Union. When he left,
there were 25.
Confederate States of America
• Florida, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas
joined South Carolina in
voting to secede.
• They create the
Confederate States of
America.
• Elected Jefferson Davis
as their president.
• Virginia, Arkansas,
North Carolina, and
Tennessee joined the
Confederacy after the
attack on Fort Sumter.
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Dark red – states that seceded before April 15, 1861
Red – states that seceded after April 15, 1861
Yellow – Union states that permitted slavery
Blue – Union states that forbade slavery
Grey – territories, unaffiliated
Fort Sumter
• Fort Sumter
– Immediate problem posed by the secession of the
southern states were two forts held by Federal
troops were now located in the Confederate
States of America
– Fort Sumter in South Carolina was cut off from
Federal supplies and reinforcements
– Buchanan refused to act with force during his last
days as president and left the problem for Lincoln
The Fighting Begins
• Lincoln announced he would send provisions
to the troops at Ft. Sumter
• At 4am on April 12, 1861, South Carolina fired
upon Ft. Sumter and the Civil War began
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Fighting Begins
Crisis at Ft. Sumter
Eyewitness Account
Ft. Sumter Surrenders