a nation divides causes of the american civil war
TRANSCRIPT
A Nation Divides
Causes of
The American Civil War
Objective: I can understand the events that led up to the Civil War
(SS07-S1C6-01)
• The role of the Abolitionists and the Underground Railroad
• Sectionalism and States’ Rights
• Westward Expansion
• Missouri and 1850 Compromises
• Dred Scott Decision
• Kansas-Nebraska Act
Abolitionists
• A group that was devoted to the cause of ending slavery.
• Most active from the 1830s, but various groups formed to protest slavery as early as 1688.
William Lloyd Garrison
Garrison published the anti-slavery newspaper “The Liberator” for over thirty years. He was perhaps the most radical abolitionist, and insisted that non-political, non-violent, not segregated methods were needed to fight slavery
Angelina GrimkeBorn to a slave-holding
family in South Carolina, Angelina and her sister, Sarah, moved to Pennsylvania and spoke out against slavery. They were verbally attacked for speaking in public.
Lucretia Mott
A Quaker minister, Mott sought the abolition of slavery and sometimes sheltered runaway slaves in her home. She refused to wear cotton, eat sugarcane, or use any slave-produced good. She was also a supporter of women’s rights movement.
Reactions to the Abolitionist Movement
• In the South, slaveholders and non-slaveholders believed that abolitionism threatened their way of life.
• In the North, where the abolitionists were a small fraction of the population, opposition focused on the potential threat to the nation’s social order, the potential for a war with the South, and that freed slaves might take jobs away from Northern factory workers by working for lower pay).
• Riots, mobs, and many acts of violence (including the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, editor of an anti-slavery newspaper in Illinois). The anti-slavery headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Hall, was burned to the ground.
Frederick DouglassBorn a slave in Maryland,
Douglass escaped, became a lecturer for the anti-slavery cause and published an abolitionist newspaper, “The North Star”. He also worked with the Underground Railroad and was an advisor to Lincoln.
A quote from Douglass:
Believe in yourself.
Take advantage of every opportunity.
Use the power of spoken and written language to effect positive change for yourself and society.
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of routes by which slaves attempted to escape to free states, or as far north as Canada, with the aid of abolitionists. Other routes led to Mexico or overseas. At its height between 1810 and 1850, an estimated 30,000 to 100,000 people escaped enslavement via the Underground Railroad, though census figures only account for 6,000.
The Underground Railroad consisted of secret routes, transportation, meeting points, safe houses, and other havens, and assistance that was maintained by abolitionist sympathizers.
“Underground Routes”
Harriet Tubman• Born a slave, but
escaped and became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She took more than 300 slaves to the north.
• During the Civil War, Harriet was a spy for the Union.
SECTIONALISMAND
STATES’ RIGHTS
SECTIONALISM: Instead of looking at the nation as a whole, southerners, westerners and northerners began to
identify themselves regionally and not as Americans. So, the people would put the needs of their region over the needs of
the nation.
What did the North and South disagree on?
• Slavery
•
• Western Expansion
• Very different lifestyles, economies, and political ideals.
NORTH SOUTH
• More diverse population
• Higher population• Larger cities• Industry and business • Small farms• Groups of abolitionists
trying to end slavery
• Agriculture as basis of economy
• Cash Crops: Cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugarcane
• Slave labor• Few factories, little
industry
Cotton is King!• In 1790 (before the
invention of the cotton gin) there were about 750, 000 slaves in the south and 3000 bales of cotton produced per year.
• By 1860, the number of slaves was over four million, who produced almost four million bales of cotton per year
States’ Rights• Southern states felt
state laws carried more weight than federal laws and therefore, state laws should be followed first. In addition, they argued that the federal government only has limited power under the 10th amendment.
Westward Expansion
http://www.unitedstreaming.com/
videos/12355/chp899204_256k.
New Territory• Louisiana Purchase (1803)• Texas (1845)• Pacific Northwest (Treaty with
Britain signed 1846: Oregon and Washington)
• New Mexico, most of Arizona, California, Utah, and Nevada (1848).
United States in 1800
United States in 1850
Free or Slave States?Compromise #1:
Missouri Compromise of 1820Missouri would come in as a slave
stateMaine would come in as a free
stateBanned slavery in the rest of the
Louisiana territory above the 36, 30’ parallel
Compromise #2:
Compromise of 1850:California would be admitted as a free
stateFugitive Slave ActSlave trade abolished in Washington
D.C.New Mexico territory could decide for
itself whether to allow slavery
•
Fugitive Slave Act
• Required Northerners to return runaway slaves to their masters.
• Made the Federal government responsible for catching slaves and trying them before “special commissioners”. The slaves could not speak and the commissioners were paid more if they returned the slave to the south.
Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854
Slave or Free?
• Introduced by Stephen Douglas, the act would allow the settlers of the proposed states to decide by voting (popular sovereignty) whether it would be slave or free. This abandoned the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
• Pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups flooded Kansas to influence the vote.
“Bleeding Kansas”
• Elections put BOTH anti-slavery AND pro-slavery governments in charge of Kansas.
• May 1856, Kansas exploded in violence: Lawrence was attacked by pro-slavery groups and anti-slavery groups committed revenge killings.
• By Fall of 1856, over 200 people had been killed in Kansas.
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott v Sanford (1857)
Dred Scott Case• Dred Scott sued for
his freedom on the basis that he lived in Illinois (a free state) and the Wisconsin Territory (free) for years.
• The case went before the Supreme Court, which could use the case to rule on slavery in the territories….
The Court’s Decision:
• Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that Dred Scott was still a slave, therefore not a citizen, and not even allowed to bring a lawsuit to the court.
• Living on free soil did not make someone free, and slaves were property.
• Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the U.S. territories because that would amount to taking away a person’s property without “due process of law”.
Reaction to the Dred Scott Decision:
• Southerners were elated by the Supreme Court ruling that preventing slavery’s spread was unconstitutional.
• Republicans and other anti-slavery groups were outraged and called it “the greatest crime” ever committed. They vowed to win the presidency, appoint new justices and overturn the decision.
Raid on Harper’s Ferry
John Brown’s PlansAn abolitionist, John
Brown planned to raid the federal arsenal (storage place for weapons and ammunition) in Harper’s Ferry Virginia. He planned to distribute the weapons to enslaved people for rebellion.
October 16, 1859
• John Brown and 21 men, including two of his sons, stormed into the arsenal and a rifle maker’s shop and took 60 hostages.
• Brown was wounded when Marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee ended the stand-off. Both of Brown’s sons were killed.
John Brown was tried, found guilty, and executed.
Click for video:
Election of 1860
The Candidates• John Breckinridge: of Kentucky,
nominated as a Democratic candidate. He was the vice-president, and promoted the extension of slavery into the territories.
• Stephen A. Douglas: of Illinois, a Democratic candidate who opposed the spread of slavery and lost the support of Southern Democrats.
More Candidates…• Abraham Lincoln: The Republican
candidate, also from Illinois, he was a moderate. His party was opposed to the spread of slavery.
• John Bell: of Tennessee, was the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party, which took no formal position on slavery.
Lincoln Wins!
• Lincoln won a majority of the votes, even though he did not appear on the ballot in most Southern states.
• He won every Northern state.
• He won 180 of 303 electoral votes, but only 40% of the popular vote.
Three weeks later:
• South Carolina votes to secede, or leave, the United States on December 20, 1860
• They were joined by Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia to form the Confederate States of America.
• WAR HAD BEGUN