Download new Causes leading up to the Civil War

A Divided Nation
Causes Leading Up to the Civil War
Main Idea
•
Differences
between the North
and South led to
growing tensions
between the two
regions.
Differences Divide North & South
Economy
Population
Feelings About
Slavery
North
South
Factories
Wanted higher
taxes on
imported goods
19 Million
Farming
Wanted lower
taxes on
imported goods
11 Million
(4 million slaves)
Wanted to keep Wanted the right
slavery in South to take slaves
anywhere
Farming
•
Most people in the southern states
earned a living by farming:




Cotton
Tobacco
Rice
Wheat
Slavery
Slavery was allowed in the Southern States,
where enslaved people grew crops such as
cotton, tobacco, and rice.
• Northern workers were free and were paid for
their farm work.
• As Southern plantations grew, so did the
number of enslaved African Americans.
•
Different Views on Slavery
•
Abolitionists opposed slavery and fought to
end slavery everywhere in the country.
 John Brown’ s raid- Brown and a group of 21
white and black men went to Harper’s Ferry,
West Virginia on Oct. 16,1859 to seize weapons
to give to slaves in Virginia to help them rebel
against their owners. His group was surrounded
by a force of U.S. Marines under Lt. Col. Robert
E. Lee. Half of Brown’s men died and he was
wounded and captured.
►
Abolitionist John Brown
•
Southern slave owners continued to defend
slavery because they needed workers for
the large farms and plantations.
•
Slaves were given no choice.
Slave Codes
•All slaves were required to follow the
slave code. They were not allowed to:
•Leave their owners’ land
•Hit a white person
•Own property
•Meet in groups
•Buy or sell
•Learn to read or write
Slave pen where slaves
were held before being
auctioned to the highest
bidder.
Resisting Slavery
Quiet Resistance
•Refused to obey
•Broke tools
•Left gates open
•Let boats drift away
•Hid or destroyed goods
Slave Rebellions
•Ran away
•Helped others escape
•Took up weapons against owners
•Nat Turner
•The Amistad
The Underground Railroad
•Secret escape routes to
help runaway slaves.
•Conductors were people
who helped slaves.
•Not all conductors were
African Americans.
•Stations were secret hiding places for slaves.
Harriet Tubman
•Harriet Tubman was the most famous
“conductor”.
•She escaped from the South,
she went back over 19 times
to help other slaves runaway.
•She led over 300
slaves to freedom,
including her whole
family!
Free African Americans
By 1860, there were 4.5 million African Americans
living in the U.S.
• 4.1 million of these African Americans lived in the
South.
• 1 out of every 9 African Americans were free.
Most free African Americans lived in cities.
• Without a certificate of freedom, even free African
Americans could be sent back into slavery.
•
Missouri Compromise
•
•
•
In 1819, the U.S. was made up of 11 free
states and 11 slave states.
In 1820, Missouri was admitted as a slave
state and Maine was admitted as a free
state.
After these two states were admitted, an
imaginary line was drawn below Missouri.
Any state admitted above that line would be
a free state and any state below that line
would be a slave state.
Compromise of 1850
•Admitted California as
a free state and divided
up the rest of the
western territory,
allowing them to
choose to be free or
slave.
•Fugitive Slave Laws returned runaway
slaves to the South.
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
•
•
•
Stephen Douglas
Changed the Missouri Compromise to allow
Kansas and Nebraska to choose if they
would be slave or free (even though they
were above the line and should have been
free states.)
Fighting broke out and over 200 people
died. This event was called Bleeding
Kansas.
States’ Rights and Slavery
•The North felt slavery should stay in the south,
while the South felt that they should be able to
take slaves wherever they wanted.
•Southerners felt that if they lost their slaves, the
economy would suffer.
•They believed that each state should be able to
decide the issue of slavery without the federal
government making laws about it or having
Congress decide for them.
States’ Rights and Free Trade
•
•
•
•
Southern states wanted to buy factory goods
from Europe instead of from the North.
Buying goods from Europe would hurt the
economy of the North, which would also serve
to punish them for fighting against slavery.
The Northern states passed laws to tax goods
from Europe, making them too expensive for
Southerners to afford.
The South felt these laws violated their rights.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The disagreements over slavery between the
North and the South increased with the publication
of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, “Uncle Tom’s
Cabin”.
• The book was about the cruelty of slavery. People
began to see that slavery was wrong after reading
it.
• It was the second highest selling book after the
Bible in the 19th century.
•
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Lincoln met Stowe
later and remarked
that she was “the
little lady who
started a big war.”
Supreme Court Case
Dred Scott - 1857
Judge ruled that Dred Scott was NOT a free man
because he was property.
• Judge ruled that the Missouri Compromise violated
the constitutional rights of those who lived in the
north because it didn’t allow them to own slaves.
•
Senate Race
Illinois 1858
•
Stephen Douglas was a democrat. He was short,
fat, well-dressed, well educated, and he was a
good public speaker.
•
Abraham Lincoln was a republican. He was tall,
skinny, wore wrinkled clothes, was self-taught, and
he was a good public speaker.
•
Douglas won the senate race, but it helped people
to get to know Lincoln.
Lincoln is Elected President
1860
•
Stephen Douglas ran
against Abraham
Lincoln, but this time
Lincoln won.
•
Lincoln was elected
president of the United
States on November 6,
1860.
Southern States Secede
•
•
•
Many Southern states believed that the South
should secede, or break away, from the United
States.
South Carolina was the first state to secede
from the Union on December 20, 1860.
From December to February, 6 more southern
states seceded, including Alabama, Florida,
Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
Confederate States of America
•
•
In February 1861, the Confederate States of
America was formed and Jefferson Davis
was elected as the president.
The states that seceded were called the
Confederacy. The states that remained loyal
to the United States government were
called the Union.
President of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis
Lincoln is sworn in
•
Abraham Lincoln was
sworn in as president
of the United States on
March 4, 1861.
Lincoln’s Inauguration
The War Begins
•
•
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After Lincoln’s inauguration, the
Confederacy took over most of the forts and
military property in the South.
Fort Sumter was one of the forts under
Union control.
It is located in South Carolina, the first state
to secede from the Union.
Civil War
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The Union was running short on supplies so
they sent a letter to President Lincoln
requesting help.
Before Lincoln had a chance to send
supplies, the Confederates began firing on
Fort Sumter. The Union army was forced to
surrender.
The battle at Fort Sumter began the Civil
War.
This photograph
shows Major
Robert Anderson
and soldiers
praying around
the flag in Fort
Sumter on
December 27,
1860