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CAUSES OF
THE CIVIL WAR
The Missouri Compromise
In 1819, 11 states permitted slavery and 11 did not, but
when slaveholding Missouri asked to join the Union this
balance became unstable again.
Speaker of the House Henry Clay thought he had a
solution and he proposed the Missouri Compromise which
would allow Missouri’s admittance as a slave state while
simultaneously admitting Maine as a free state.
The Compromise also prohibited slavery in the remainder
of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36-30N latitude.
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE
The Compromise of 1850
• After the Mexican-American War, we again had issues of how
to admit states. Henry Clay again came up with a
compromise:
– California would be admitted as a free state
– New Mexico territory would have no restriction on slavery.
– The slave trade, but not slavery itself, would be abolished
in the District of Columbia (Washington D.C).
– A stronger fugitive (runaway) slave law that
was criticized in Harriet Beecher Stowes,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act
– In 1854 Stephen Douglas proposes that “popular
sovereignty” should be how the slavery issue should
be decided in new territories.
– The law passed, overturning the Missouri
Compromise.
– The act led to bloodshed in Kansas when it was time
to vote.
– Critics of the act formed a new political party, The
Republicans. They wanted to let slavery continue in
the South, but not extend it to any new territories.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave who had followed his master
throughout his travels from slave to Free State until his
master had died. After his master died, Scott sued in
court for his freedom because he felt he should be free
since he had once lived on free soil.
The Court’s decided that Dred Scott was still a slave and
also that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in
any territory. Knowing this they found the Missouri
Compromise to be unconstitutional and so, too, popular
sovereignty: where each new state could vote if it
wanted slavery or not. All in all this decision meant that
the Constitution protected slavery.
THE DRED SCOTT DECISION
The Nation Splits Apart
The election of 1860 proved to be one that could divide the
nation in two. Abraham Lincoln won in a close race, yet his
victory would be short lived, soon after the union he became
president of quickly disintegrated.
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina held a special
convention and voted to secede and by February 1861,
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia
joined in secession as well.
Calling themselves the Confederate States of America the
delegates from these states met in Montgomery, AL to form
a new nation and government, they chose Jefferson Davis as
their president. Southerners justified secession with the
theory of states’ rights - the states had voluntarily joined the
Union so they could voluntarily leave.
THE SOUTH SECEEDS
THE CIVIL WAR BEGINS…