Download War Divides the Nation

The Road to War
United States Civil War
Territories and States
• By 1880 the USA territory stretched over forest,
plain and mountain. Within these boundaries lived 23
million people in a union comprising 31 states.
Labor and King Cotton
• The South’s economy centered on agriculture.
• Tobacco was important, but cotton eventually
became the dominant crop.
• Slaves were used to cultivate all these crops,
though cotton most of all.
Slavery Defined
• Slavery was inherently a system of brutality and
coercion in which beatings and the breakup of
families through the sale of individuals were
commonplace.
Slave States
Territories
One issue, however,
divided the regional
and economic
differences between
North and South:
slavery.
Slave States
Free States
Slaves and the Cotton Crop
• Southerners felt the backwardness of their own
region was due to the large amount of money made by
Northern businessmen from marketing the cotton
crop.
Southern Slavery
• Northerners, on the other hand, declared that slavery, which
the South felt was essential to its economy, was wholly
responsible for the region's relative backwardness.
Plantation Slaves
• Only a minority of
Southern whites
owned slaves. More
than half of all
slaves worked on
plantations. The
"poor whites" lived
on the lowest rung
of Southern society
and held no slaves.
Plantation Owners
• It is easy to
understand the
interest of the
planters in slave
holding, they owned
most of the slaves.
But most
southerners and poor
whites supported the
institution of slavery
as well.
Freedom for Slaves?
• The plantation owners
feared that if freed,
blacks would compete
with them for land.
• Just as important, the
freeing of slaves raised
them to the same
standing as the poor
whites on the social
scale. The poor whites
did not want this to
happen.
Labor: Slavery vs Wage System
• Southern
politicians insisted,
for example, that
the relationship
between capital and
labor was more
humane under the
slavery system than
under the wage
system of the
North.
Right to be Free
• The greatest problem of slavery was not the
behavior of individual masters and overseers toward
the slaves, but slavery's fundamental violation of
every human being's inalienable right to be free.
1820 Missouri Compromise
1819 – 11 free states and 11 slave states
1819 – Missouri requests to join the Union – Slave or Free??
Why does it matter?
Senator Henry Clay proposed a compromise:
Missouri would be a slave state and Maine would join the Union as a
free state.
Slavery was banned north of the 36/30 N except for Missouri
Pro Slavery V Anti Slavery
• The South
believed it
needed new
territory for
additional
slave states to
offset the
admission of
new free
states.
•Many Northerners believed that
if not allowed to spread, slavery
would ultimately decline and die.
•California, New Mexico and Utah
did not have slavery, and when
the United States prepared to
take over these areas in 1846,
there were conflicting
suggestions on what to do with
them.
No New Slave States
The Issue of States Rights
• Extremists in the South urged that all the lands
acquired from Mexico be thrown open to slave holders.
• Antislavery Northerners, on the other hand, demanded
that all the new regions be closed to slavery.
• Another group proposed that the government should
permit settlers to enter the new territory with or
without slaves as they pleased and let the people
themselves determine the question.
The Issue of States Rights
• Southern opinion held that all the territories had the
right to sanction slavery.
• The North asserted that no territories had the right.
Breaking the Nation Apart
• Some in the South wanted to have their own nation
and be able to decide what laws to have. The North
did not want the country to be broken apart.
States Rights
Freedom in California
• In January 1848
gold was discovered
in California.
California became a
crucial question.
Congress had to
determine the
status of this new
region before an
organized
government could
be established.
New Territory Quarrels
• Senator
Henry Clay
halted a
dangerous
sectional
quarrel with
a complicated
and carefully
balanced
plan.
Compromise of 1850
His compromise, known in American history as the
Compromise of 1850. It stated:
• California should be admitted as a state with a freesoil (slavery-prohibited) constitution.
• The remainder of land should be divided into the two
territories of New Mexico and Utah and organized
without mention of slavery.
Compromise of 1850
• Texas should be given a portion of New Mexico for
$10 million.
• Effective machinery should be established for catching
runaway slaves and returning them to their masters.
• The buying and selling of slaves (but not slavery) should
be abolished in the District of Columbia.
These measures were passed, and the country breathed a
sigh of relief.
Compromise of 1850
• For three years, the
compromise seemed
to settle nearly all
differences.
• The new Fugitive
Slave Law deeply
offended many
Northerners, who
refused to have any
part in catching
slaves.
Compromise of 1850
• Many Northerners
continued to help
fugitives escape,
and made the
Underground
Railroad more
efficient and more
daring than it had
been before.
Fugitive Slave Law
• In 1852, for example,
Harriet Beecher
Stowe published Uncle
Tom's Cabin, a novel
provoked by the
passage of the
Fugitive Slave Law. So
many copies were sold
the first year, and
presses ran day and
night to keep up with
the demand.
Quarreling in Kansas and
Nebraska
• In 1854 as the region that now comprises Kansas and
Nebraska was being settled, the old issue of slavery
in the territories was renewed and the quarrel
became more bitter.
Missouri Objects
• Slave-holders in Missouri, objected to letting Kansas
become a free territory, for their state would then
have three free-soil neighbors (Illinois, Iowa and
Kansas). They feared their state would be forced to
become a free state as well.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Stephen A. Douglas, a
Democratic senator from
Illinois, proposed a bill, the
Kansas-Nebraska Act. His
plan called for Kansas and
Nebraska, to permit
settlers to carry slaves into
them. The settlers were to
then determine whether
they should enter the Union
as free or slave states.
Kansas-Nebraska Act Passes
• In May
1854, the
KansasNebraska
Act passed
the Senate
amid the
boom of
cannon
fired by
Southern
enthusiasts.
Bleeding Kansas
• The flow of both Southern slave holders and
antislavery families into Kansas resulted in armed
conflict, and soon the territory was being called
"bleeding Kansas."
Dred Scott Decision
• Other events brought the nation
still closer to war. In 1957 the
Supreme Court's decision
concerning Dred Scott was one
such event.
Scott was a Missouri slave who had
been taken by his master to live in
Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory,
where slavery had been banned.
Returning to Missouri, Scott sued
for freedom on the ground that his
residence was on free soil.
Dred Scott Decision
• The Supreme Court decided that Scott be
declined freedom because he was not a
citizen; that he was the resident of a slave
state (Missouri); and that slave holders had
the right to take their "property" anywhere
and that Congress could not restrict the
expansion of slavery.
Court Invalidates Congress
• The Court's decision invalidated the whole set of
compromise setup by Congress in trying to settle the
slavery issue.
Dred Scott Decision Angers
North
• The Dred Scott decision stirred anger throughout
the North. For Southern Democrats, the decision was
a great victory, since it gave judicial voice to their
justification of slavery throughout the territories.
Lincoln: Restrict and Abolish Slavery
• Abraham Lincoln had long regarded slavery as an evil.
In a speech in Peoria, Illinois, in 1854, he declared
that all national legislation should be framed on the
principle that slavery was to be restricted and
abolished.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Senator Douglas, known as the "Little Giant," ran
against Lincoln for the Illinois senate seat. Lincoln
and Douglas engaged in a series of seven debates. In
the end, Douglas won the election by a small margin,
but Lincoln was recognized as a national figure.
John Brown: Antislavery Fanatic
• John Brown, an
antislavery fanatic
captured and killed five
proslavery settlers in
Kansas. Later he led a
band of followers in an
attack on the federal
arsenal at Harper's
Ferry. Brown's goal was
to use the weapons
seized to lead a slave
uprising.
Sing along, “John Brown’s Body”
Abraham Lincoln, 1858
• “A house divided against
itself cannot stand.
I believe this government
cannot endure
permanently half-slave
and half-free.”
1860 Presidential Election
• In the presidential election of 1860 the
Republican, Abraham Lincoln, ran against
Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat, and
the Whigs party nominee, John C. Bell
of Tennessee.
Lincoln Wins
• Lincoln won only 39 percent of the
popular vote, but had a clear majority of
180 electoral votes, carrying all 18 free
states. Despite his poor electoral
showing, Douglas trailed only Lincoln in
the popular vote.
Lincoln Wins
South Carolina secedes: The
Union Dissolves
• The southern states said
that if Lincoln won the
Presidential election, they
would secede (leave) the
union. South Carolina was
the first southern state
to seceded from the union.
Six More States Secede
• By February 1, 1861, six more
Southern states had joined South
Carolina in succession. On February
7, the seven states adopted the
constitution for the Confederate
States of America. The other
southern states as yet remained in
the Union.
Succession!
Confederate White House
The Union Dissolves
• The South formed
their own nation,
The Confederate
States of
America.
Jefferson Davis
served as the
President.
Secession: Legally Void
• Abraham Lincoln was
sworn in as president
of the United States.
In his inaugural
address, he refused
to recognize the
secession,
considering it "legally
void."
WAR!
• The battle began in April
of 1861 when the
Confederate Army took
over Fort Sumter in
Charleston, South
Carolina.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Civil War, Death and Destruction
• A war had begun in which more
Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.
Writing Situation: Pretend you
are a news reporter during the
years prior to the Civil War.
Directions for Writing: Write an
news article explaining the causes
leading to the Civil War.
Additional Resources
• A Day in the Life of A Slave
• An Interview with a Slave (listen to a firsthand experience)
• Civil War Quiz
• American Civil War Homepage
• Civil War Photographs