Causes of the Civil War

Missouri Compromise

• Problem:• Missouri wanted to become a state in 1817 • Wanted to allow slavery• U.S. had 11 slave and 11 free states• MO would upset the balance of power in Congress• Meanwhile Maine applied for statehood

• Solution:• Angry debates lasted for months in Congress• Henry Clay suggested MO be admitted as slave and Maine

as free• Also called for slavery banned in Louisiana Territory north

of MO’s border

How did it Contribute to the Cause of the Civil War?

• Started Divisions between Free states and Slave states.

The Wilmot Proviso

• Outlawed slavery in any territory gained in the Mexican War

• Southerners claimed the bill was unconstitutional• Slaves were property• Removed the right to take property (slaves)

anywhere in U.S.

• Congress was divided along regional lines

• Passed the House but was defeated in the Southern controlled Senate

How did it Contribute to the Cause of the Civil War?

• Introduced the idea of outlawing slavery

• Added to tension and division

• Started the Free-Soil Party

Free-Soil Party

• Born from the Wilmot Proviso

• A political party dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery

• Won more than 10 seats in Congress in 1848

• Made slavery a key issue in national politics

• Politicians could not ignore slavery anymore

Controversy over Territories

• 1848: debate on how to deal with slavery in new territories gained by Mexican War

• Balance of Congress threatened

• California wanted to be free• Southerners wanted to divide California• President Taylor proposed CA apply for

statehood before a territory, • Did not give time for slaveholders to move in

The Compromise of 1850

• Henry Clay drafted a plan:

• CA admitted as free state

• Slave trade abolished in Washington D.C.

• Congress would not pass laws regarding slavery for the rest of the territories won from Mexico• Popular Sovereignty: People of that area will

decide

• Fugitive Slave Act

How did it Contribute to the Cause of the Civil War?

• Left decision up to the people, causing tensions

• South felt they were being threatened

The Fugitive Slave Act• Helped slaveholders

recapture runaway slaves

• Fugitives held without arrest warrant

• No jury

• Jail terms and fines for those who aided fugitive slaves

• Presence of slave catchers in North reminded people of how they were supporting the slave trade

How did it Contribute to the Cause of the Civil War?

• Kept the issue of slavery alive in the North

• Reminded Northerners that they supported slavery

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852

• Portrayed moral issues of slavery

• Uncle Tom, an older slave and his life with 3 owners

• Popular in North

• South felt it falsely criticized the South and slavery

How did it Contribute to the Cause of the Civil War?

• Showed the brutality of slavery to Northerners

• South was mad that it wasn’t the “truth”

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

• 1854: Stephen A. Douglass of IL proposed that Nebraska territory be divided into NE and KS

• Proposed Popular Sovereignty in these territories• People could vote for slavery

• Would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820• Banned slavery in territories north of MO

• Southerners supported and it was passed

Bleeding Kansas• Proslavery and anti slavery

settlers rushed to Kansas territory

• At time there were more proslavery settlers

• Kansas legislature was packed with proslavery representatives

• Antislavery settlers boycotted official government and formed own government

Sack of Lawrence, KS

• In May a proslavery mob attacked the town of Lawrence

• Destroyed offices, house of the governor of the antislavery movement

Pottawatomie Massacre

• John Brown, extreme abolitionist, led

• Took seven men to cabins of proslavery neighbors and murdered five people

• To avenge Sack of Lawrence

• Civil War broke out in KS in response• “Bleeding Kansas” went on for 3 years

Violence in Congress

• May of 1856, at the Capital, Charles Sumner delivered speech toward proslavery forces in KS• Packed with insults• Made fun of A.P. Butler , a senator from SC

• Preston Brooks defended Butler by beating Sumner with his cane 30 times.

• Southerners cheered Brooks defense of the South

• Northerners were shocked at violence in the Senate

How did it Contribute to the Cause of the Civil War?

• First bloodshed over slavery

• Fighting and unrest

• People couldn’t “agree” on slavery

Efforts to Compromise Fail

• Crittenden Plan: extend the MO Compromise line to CA, but it failed

• Lincoln tried to assure the South that he would not abolish slavery, he would not invade or press the South. Tried to appeal to friendship….

• BUT, he would not abandon U.S. government forts in South and they would need supplied soon…….

To Be Continued