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SS8H6a
Explain the importance of key issues and
events that led to the Civil War; include
slavery, states’ rights, nullification, Missouri
Compromise, Compromise of 1850 and the
Georgia Platform, Kansas-Nebraska Act,
Dred Scott case, election of 1860, the
debate over secession in Georgia, and the
role of Alexander Stephens.
Concept:
Conflict and Change
Individuals and Groups
Rule of Law
Understand This:
SS8H6a
Why did
southern states
try to form their
own country?
Why did southern states try to form their
own country?
SS8H6a
Slavery
States’ rights
Secession
Election of
1860
CAUSES
OF
CIVIL WAR
Dred Scott
case
Nullification
Missouri
Compromise
KansasNebraska Act
Compromise
of 1850
Slavery
States’ rights
Secession
Election of
1860
How did the
following issues
and events cause
the Civil War?
Dred Scott
case
Nullification
Missouri
Compromise
KansasNebraska Act
Compromise
of 1850
STATES’ RIGHTS
This phrase refers to individual states being
sovereign (or having the right to govern itself).
According to the 10th amendment of the
constitution…
“The powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people.”
Basically, states wanted to follow their own laws,
and they did not want the federal government
(United States) to overrule state laws.
STATES’ RIGHTS
The main issue over states’ rights
involved the institution of slavery.
Southern states feared that Congress
would pass laws eventually outlawing
the practice of slavery, which would
hurt the southern agricultural
economic way of life involving the
growing of cotton and tobacco on
large plantations.
SLAVERY
When the Georgia Trustees first envisioned their
colonial experiment in the early 1730s, they sought to
avoid the slave-based plantation economy that had
developed in other colonies in the American South.
The allure of profits from slavery, however, proved to
be too powerful for white Georgia settlers to resist. By
the era of the American Revolution (1775-83), African
slaves constituted nearly half of Georgia's colonial
population. Although the Revolution fostered the
growth of an antislavery movement in the northern
states, white Georgia landowners fiercely maintained
their commitment to slavery even as the war disrupted
the plantation economy. In subsequent decades
slavery would play an ever-increasing role in Georgia's
shifting plantation economy. - New Georgia Encyclopedia
SLAVERY
• By the 1790s entrepreneurs were perfecting new
mechanized cotton gins, the most famous of
which was invented by Eli Whitney on a
Savannah River plantation owned by Catharine
Greene in 1793. This technological advance
presented Georgia planters with a staple crop
that could be grown over much of the state. As
early as the 1780s white politicians in Georgia
were working to acquire and to distribute fertile
western lands controlled by the Creek Indians, a
process that continued in the nineteenth century
with the expulsion of the Cherokees. By the
1830s cotton plantations had spread across
most of the state.
– New Georgia Encyclopedia
SLAVERY
• Although slavery played a dominant economic and
political role in Georgia, most white Georgians did
not own slaves. In 1860 less than one-third of
Georgia's adult white male population of 132,317
were slaveholders. Slaveholders controlled not
only the best land and the vast majority of
personal property in the state but also the state
political system. In 1850 and 1860 more than twothirds of all state legislators were slaveholders.
More striking, almost a third of the state legislators
were planters. Hence, even without the
cooperation of nonslaveholding white male voters,
Georgia slaveholders could dictate the state's
political path. - New Georgia Encyclopedia
Kentlaw.edu
NULLIFICATION CRISIS
• The United States Congress passed the tariff of
1828 in order to increase the price of foreign
goods so that the same goods manufactured in
the north would be cheaper in price. This
helped northern businesses, but people in the
south were having to pay more for a product that
was their second choice since their first choice
(foreign product) is now more expensive
because of the tariff (tax) added to the cost.
• Southerners felt this unconstitutional and that
they should not have to pay the tariff. South
Carolina threatened to leave the union if the
tariffs were not repealed.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE
In 1819, the United States was divided equally
with 11 free states and 11 slave states. People
living in the Missouri Territory applied for
statehood as a slave state, but Congress did not
approve because there would be an imbalance
of power. Think back to the Senate where 2
senators represent each states. If Missouri was
allowed to be a slave state then there would be
24 US senators coming from slave states and 22
from non-slave states. Slave states would have
an advantage when trying to pass or keep from
passing certain laws.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE
To keep a balance in the US Congress, a
compromise was made to allow Maine to
be admitted to the Union as a free state
while Missouri was added to the United
States as a slave state. Also part of the
compromise was that slavery would be
outlawed north of the 36th degree line of
latitude.
COMPROMISE OF 1850
Just like the Missouri Compromise, the
Compromise of 1850 involved slavery.
To keep balance in the US government
California became a free state and
Texas was added as a slave state. But
the states still argued over the issue of
slavery in the nation’s capital as well as
the problem of runaway slaves in the
south. Southern states threatened to
leave the Union in order to preserve
slavery and states’ rights in the South.
COMPROMISE OF 1850
As part of the Compromise of 1850, Congress
passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This law said
that slaves could not become free once they
entered into free states. Instead, slaves were
to be returned to the slave states and anyone
helping a slave to freedom faced fines and
imprisonment. This angered northerners who
disagreed with slavery. The other part of the
1850 Compromise was that slave trading
became illegal in Washington D.C.
GEORGIA PLATFORM
Georgians met at the state capital in
Milledgeville to discuss the Compromise
of 1850. Representative Alexander
Stephens supported the Compromise of
1850 because he did not want Georgia
to secede from the Union. He felt
Georgia and the southern states had
too much too lose if they seceded and
lost a Civil War. Georgia helped
prevent war and secession.
KANSAS – NEBRASKA ACT
In 1854, Congress allowed the people
living in the territories of Kansas and
Nebraska to vote on the issue of slavery.
This is known as popular sovereignty. The
Republican Party was created because it
did not like this act because it repealed the
Missouri Compromise which stated that
slavery was not allowed north of the 36th
line of latitude. Kansas would become a
free state.
Dred Scott was a slave from
the slave state of Missouri
who traveled with his master
Dr. John Emerson to the free
state of Illinois. Dred Scott
eventually tried to sue for his
freedom since he believed
that he could not be a slave
in a free state.
The Supreme Court did not
rule in his favor. Instead, the
Supreme Court decided that
Dred Scott could not sue in
court because slaves were
not citizens, therefore, he
had no rights. The Court
also allowed slaves to be
taken to free states b/c they
were property of their
masters. The ruling was a
victory for southern slave
owners, while abolitionists in
the north disagreed.
DRED SCOTT SUPREME COURT CASE
ELECTION OF 1860
For decades the arguments about slavery have
been growing louder between people who live in
the Northern states and people who live in the
Southern states. Northerners believe slavery
should be abolished for moral reasons.
Southerners feel the end of slavery will destroy
their region’s rural economy. Many in the South
think the election of Northerner Abraham Lincoln
to be president of the United States will be a
serious blow to their way of life.
- Bentley Boyd chestercomix
WHAT DID
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN DO TO
BECOME SUCH A
FAMOUS
AMERICAN IN
UNITED STATES
HISTORY?
DEBATE OVER SECESSION
• Lincoln’s victory in the 1860 presidential
election caused southern states to hold
conventions on whether or not they should
secede from the Union in order to protect
the legalization of slavery in their states.
• South Carolina became the 1st state to
secede from the Union, while Georgia
became the 5th state to secede.
WHAT MESSAGE IS THIS
PRIMARY SOURCE POLITICAL
CARTOON TYRING TO CONVEY?
ROLE OF
ALEXANDER STEPHENS
Alexander Stephens was a U.S. Representative
from Georgia who was PRO-slavery, but he was
against Secession. When Georgia held a
convention to decide on secession Alexander
Stephens argued against it by saying the South
should remain loyal to the Union. He believed
that if the South seceded then a Civil War would
break out and if the South lost then they would
lose their states’ rights, especially the right to
keep slavery legal.
ROLE OF
ALEXANDER STEPHENS
Despite Alexander Stephens and his words of
caution, Georgia decided to secede anyway.
Those states in the south that seceded created
the Confederate States of America, a separate
country. Alexander Stephens was persuaded to
become the vice-president of the C.S.A., most
likely to appeal to southerners that were just like
him – wanted to keep slavery, but really didn’t
want to leave the union. This would help keep
the southern states united.
Slavery
States’ rights
Secession
Election of
1860
How did the
following issues
and events cause
the Civil War?
Dred Scott
case
Nullification
Missouri
Compromise
KansasNebraska Act
Compromise
of 1850