civil war causes
DESCRIPTION
cause of civil warTRANSCRIPT
The Civil WarCauses
DIFFERENCESEconomic & Social
Similarities
• Both depend on slavery/cotton
• “Small farmers” make up majority in both regions
• Most people in the two regions do not own slaves
• Both are racist
• North is changing: progressing• Industrialization/urbanization
• 4 million slaves in South (40% of population)
• South supports States’ rights • the right to declare National
Laws unconstitutional
• Lifestyles of people• North = Urban
• South = Rural
Differences
ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES
North
• Developed an industrial
economy based on
manufacturing
• Favored high protective
tariffs
• to protect Northern
manufactures from foreign
competition
• Industrializing and
Urbanizing
• 90% of U.S. Manufacturing
occurs in North
• Northern economy diverse
The South
• Agricultural based economy
• Consisted of a slavery-based plantation system in the lowlands of the Atlantic and in the Deep South
• Subsistence farmers in foothills and valleys of Appalachian Mountains
• Opposed tariffs, made the price of manufactured good s more expensive
• 1790s old cash crops dying out
• By 1850 Southern Economy booming
WHY?
• Growth of “King Cotton”
• Cotton Gin
• Indian Removal = farm land
• British Textile industry
• Profitability of cotton led to increase need for slaves
North South Advantage
Population 21.5 million 9 million
Factories 110,000 20,000
Miles of RR 22,000 9,000
Money $207 Million $47 Million
Cotton 4,000 bales 5,000,000 bales
Protective
Tariffs
Supported Against
States Rights Against Supported
Slavery’s Growth
• 1783 every state had slaves
• By 1800 almost every Northern state had abolished slavery
• 1846 no slavery in the North
• In the South Slave population doubled between 1810 and 1830
• Only ¼ of Southern Families owned slaves
• 88% less than 20
• 1% over 100
• Deep south where most of slaves are
Slavery’s Growth
• Non-slave owning Southerners supported slavery
• Desire to own slaves and racist ideas
• By 1830s Southerners deeming as a positive institution
• Arguments were based on historical situations
• Said it was the same as Northern labor in factories
• Churches began to show it as Christian responsibility
KEY COMPROMISES Hey…politicians put us closer to war
New States
• The admission of new states
continually led to conflicts over the
whether the new states would allow
slavery “slave states” or prohibit
slavery “free states”
Missouri Compromise
• The idea of Henry Clay
• Missouri = Slave State
• Maine = Free State
• Drew an east-west line through the Louisiana Purchase Territory
• 36 30’ N
• Above the line “free states,” prohibited slavery
• Below the line “slave states” allowed slavery
• Up until 1850 there were an equal number of free and slave states, thus power in the Senate was maintained
Compromise of 1850
California
• 1848 gold discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California
• Creates gold rush of 1849
• Rapid population increase in California
• In 1850 California wanted to come in as a free state, threatened to upset the balance of power
Compromise of 1850
• Established 3 key provisions
• California entered the Union as a free state
• The Fugitive Slave Act required that all escaped slaves be returned to their owners
• Popular Sovereignty: or a vote of the people living in the territory would decide if the area of the Mexican Concession was to be free or slave
• Northerners ignored the Fugitive Slave Act
• The idea of Popular Sovereignty was unclear
Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Gave the people of
Kansas and
Nebraska the right
to chose
• Popular
Sovereignty
• Repealed the
Missouri
Compromise
• This led to an event
called “Bloody
Kansas”
Bloody Kansas
• Pro- and anti- slavery
supporters rushed to Kansas
to vote
• Fighting between pro- and
anti- slavery supporters
erupted
• Fighting even made it to the
Senate floor
• Led to the birth of the
Republican Party
• Founded to oppose the
spread of slavery
MORE POLITICS
State’s Rights & Secession
• Southerners argued;
• That individual states could nullify laws passed by
congress States Rights
• Remember the Example
• Nullification Crisis with South Carolina 1832
• A union that allowed state governments to invalidate
acts of the national legislature could be dissolved by
states seceding from the Union in defense of slavery
• Began to insist that states had entered the Union
freely and could leave it freely if they choose-
Secede
Dred Scott - 1857
• Decision by the Supreme Court
• Overturned efforts to limit the
spread of slavery
• Outraged Northerners
• Decision said
• Slaves were property
• Slaves were not citizens
• Slaves have not rights
• Congress could not regulate
slavery
Lincoln – Douglas Debates
• Lincoln joined the Republican party
• Douglass was a Northern Democrat
• Competed against each other for a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois
• Conducted a series of debates
• Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery
• Douglass favored popular sovereignty
Lincoln warned:
• “A house divided against itself cannot stand”
Ineffective Presidents
• During the 1850s the presidents provided little help
in keeping the nation together
• Due to this lack of leadership most of the
compromises will fail and the country will divide
Millard Fillmore 1850-53
• Compromise of 1850
passed
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Published
Franklin Peirce 1853-57
• Kansas Nebraska
Act passes
• Bleeding Kansas
James Buchanan 1857-61
• Dred Scott Decision
• John Browns Raid
• Failed to stop
South Carolina’s
Secession
Rise of the Republicans
• Due to the growing issue of slavery the Whig party
began to die
• In 1854 the Republicans will emerge as a sectional
party with Whig beliefs (pro business & strong
government), but opposed the growth of slavery
• The presidential election of 1856 showed the rapid
growth of the party and that they may be able to win
an election without getting a single vote in the South
ABOLITION
The Abolitionist Movement
• Grew in the North
• Led by William Lloyd
Garrison
• Published The Liberator,
an anti-slavery
newspaper
• New England religious
leaders began to preach
slavery as a violation of
Christian Principals
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Written by Harriet
Beecher Stowe, wife of
a New England
clergyman
• Best seller in the North
• Inflamed abolitionist
sentiment in the North
• Scared the south,
because of growing
strength of movement
The Underground Railroad
• Ran by abolitionist
• A system where slaves
would escape the south
and head North
• Journeys were generally
at night, on foot, and
from satiation to station
• Harriet Tubman:
famous “conductor”
Slave Revolts in VA
• Nat Turner’s Revolt
• Gabriel Prosser’s
Revolt
• Slave revolt in Virginia
• Feed white
Southerners fears
about rebellions
• Led to harsh fugitive
slave laws
• Southern abolitionist
were forced into
silence
John Brown’s Raid
• John Brown extreme
abolitionist, used
violence
• Oct, 16, 1859 raided
arsenal at Harpers Ferry
• Trying to get guns to
slaves
• Captured, tried and hung
• Turned into a martyr
The Final Split
The Election of 1860
• The Democrats divided into 2 factions
• Northern = Popular sovereignty
• Southern = Total support of slavery
• This gives the Republicans a chance at victory
• Lincoln (Republican) won
• Wasn’t even on the ballot in 11 of the 16 southern states
The Election of Lincoln
• Southerners feared he would abolish slavery
• Before he took office South Carolina and 6 other Southern states seceded (December 1860)
• They formed the Confederate States of America
• Elected Jefferson Davis President
SLAVERY’S ROLE And other causes
Slavery’s Role
• Slavery as a MORAL issue did not cause War
• Slavery as a symbol of differences between North and
South caused war…for most people, war was not about
slavery…but, about life itself
Slavery’s place
• Slavery is imbedded in southern system
• Politically: planters run government
• Economically: slavery intertwined with cotton and profit
• Socially: slavery defines basic values (independence,
freedom, land ownership, social status)
Other Causes
• Westward expansion
• States’ rights
• Extremists
• Collapse of the political system
BY 1861 WE ARE ON THE
DOORSTEP OF WAR