Transcript Road to the Civil War

Road to the Civil War
Understanding why Northern and
Southern states could not avoid
war
Slavery was ingrained in Southern society
and largely tolerated in Northern states. They
were able to put off the issue until new
territory was open to settlement. At that point
both sides felt the other was undemocratically
taking over the nation. Ultimately it was
Southern states that felt the election of
Lincoln was an unacceptable tipping point.
Precedent of the Missouri Compromise
Mexican American War
Slave Power Conspiracy
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d t o s e e t h i s p i c tu re .
Abolitionists had always
seen a plot by wealthy
Southerners to dominate
the federal govt.
Gag rule on Congress 1836 - wasn’t that a denial
of free speech?
War on Mexico - wasn’t it
to expand slave territory?
Wilmot Proviso
No slavery will exist in any
territory gained from Mexico.
Southerners unified to protect
slavery - saw Northerners as
out to get them.
Southerners rallied around the
idea of “state sovereignty” each state could do as it liked,
and the govt. could not deny
slavery to the territories.
Free Soilers
Although Whig Zachary
Taylor was elected in
1848, factions of the
party split off to form the
Free Soil and Know
Nothing Party.
Free Soilers stood for
“free soil, speech, labor,
and men”
An increased regional
sectionalism in politics.
Compromise of 1850
CA applied to be a state by 1850, which would have upset the
balance of slave and free states.
Henry Clay came up with the basic compromise: CA a free
state, set the Texas boundary, repaid Mexico, Fugitive Slave
Law was strengthened, and no more slave trade in D.C.
Fugitive Slave Act
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d to s e e th i s p i c t u re .
Legal issues with this empowered law, where
slaveholders could claim slaves ran away, and their
description was legal proof. Northerners could be
required to hunt fugitives.
Abolitionism
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852, sold over a
million copies in a
year.
Underground
Railroad - assisted
thousands of slaves
in escape.
Southerners took
abolitionists as
criminals, out to
attack their way of
life.
Kansas Nebraska Act
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d to s e e th i s p i c t u re .
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d to s e e th i s p i c t u re .
Stephen Douglas proposed full popular sovereignty but that would violate the Missouri Compromise. The
law barely passed through Congress, largely split by
region.
Republican Party
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d to s e e th i s p i c t u re .
Republican Party formed
out of the Whig fallout
from the KN Act, it
encompassed antislavery
Whigs, Freesoilers, and
Democrats - essentially a
North only party.
Not abolitionist, but
believed in free soil
principles, internal
improvement, and hard
work.
Bleeding Kansas
With popular sovereignty
approved, most Kansas
settlers would have voted
against slavery. But
proslavery men gathered
to change the election.
Violence erupted between
the two sides.
Sumner and Brooks
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d to s e e th i s p i c t u re .
Antislavery senator
Charles Sumner of
MA was savagely
beaten by Rep.
Preston Brooks of
SC.
Dred Scott case
1857 - case of a slave who
was taken by his owner into a
free state and territory.
Scott had won his case, lost
on appeal…
Supreme Court verdict was
that Scott was not a citizen,
and could not bring a case.
But also that Congress did
not have the power to bar
slavery in territories overturned the MO
compromise and popular
sovereignty.
John Brown
A fervently religious
abolitionist. Had attacked
proslavery men in Kansas.
Organized a small group to
attack a federal arsenal in
Harper’s Ferry, VA (1859).
Was captured an
executed, but added to the
distrust.
Many in the North saw him
as a martyr. In the South
he was a prime example of
how the North tried to
control them.
Election of 1860
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d to s e e th i s p i c t u re .
Election of 1860
Lincoln won a
majority of electoral
votes, but only 40%
of the popular vote.
Lincoln held to the
position of no
slavery in the
territories, and many
Southerners saw
this as a total
exclusion from the
govt.
Secession
Before Lincoln took
office, SC seceded and moderates were
pushed toward
secession on the
basis of defending
Southern rights.
Deep South states
formed the
Confederate States of
America. Viewed
secession as the only
way to hold onto
slavery and white
dominance.
Fort Sumter
Lincoln did not
recognize the right to
secession, but did not
want to force the issue.
Held onto federal forts
in the South to
resupply, but in SC Fort
Sumter was bombed,
and soldiers shipped
back North.
Qu i c k T i m e ™ a n d a
d e c o m p re s s o r
a re n e e d e d to s e e th i s p i c t u re .
LeCompton Constitution
A dilemma over how to continue with popular
sovereignty.
Stephen Douglas wanted to lead the national
Democratic party - to unite North and South.
Pres. Buchanan wanted a proslavery Kansas,
even though voters in the state did not.
Buchanan tried to force through Congress a
false constitution, but Douglas opposed it,
which alienated Southerners.