Coming of the Civil War

The American Civil War (1861-1865)

Economic and social differences between the North and the South.

States versus federal rights.The fight between Slave and Non-Slave State

Proponents.Growth of the Abolition Movement.The election of Abraham Lincoln

“The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between slave and free states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories…” James McPherson, author

Five Causes of the Civil War

Henry Clay (KY) “The Great Compromiser”

1820 – Missouri Compromise – Maine would enter as a free state and Missouri would be slave. Territories north of Missouri would remain free.

Temporarily settled dispute over westward expansion of slavery

The war with Mexico allowed the U.S. to expand even farther west. With new territories, comes the repeated question of whether slavery should be allowed to spread.

Wilmot Proviso – proposal by David Wilmot (1846) that said, “ neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in the western territories.

Wilmot Proviso passed in the House of Representatives, but was blocked from coming to a vote in the Senate.

John C. Calhoun of S. Carolina argued that property can be taken into new territories – including slaves.

Popular sovereignty – each new territory would vote on whether to allow slavery. This concept would again open the door to the expansion of slavery.

Free Soil Party – opponents of slavery and abolitionist members of the Liberty Party joined together. They believed that the spread of slavery should not be allowed on the “free soil of the western territories.” Some wanted to stop the spread of slavery. Many wanted lands left open to white farmers.

1849 – gold is discovered in California. There were 15 free states and 15 slave states. If California enters as a free state, it would create a majority in the Senate. Fearful southerners begin to consider secession.

Compromises were used to try to hold the union together.

Compromise of 1850 – California would be free. There would be no restrictions on slavery in the Mexican Cession. The slave trade in the District of Columbia would be outlawed. Southerners were allowed greater power in recovering escaped slaves.

Fugitive Slave Act – slave owners could point out escaped slaves and have them returned. No proof of escape was needed. Federal marshals were required to help catch the slaves and they could require ordinary citizens to help.

Frederick Douglass – an escaped slave turned social reformer who made speeches against the new law; often featured in an abolitionist newspaper called The Liberator.

Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman – African-American abolitionist and Union spy during the American Civil War who helped slaves escape using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.

Levi Coffin –Quaker abolitionist and businessman deeply involved in the Underground Railroad in Ohio and Indiana. His home was often called "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad“ because of the 3000+ slaves he helped escape to freedom.

Harriet Beecher Stowe – wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to depict the true face of slavery – about the slave, Tom and his cruel master, Simon Legree. Inflamed anti-slavery sentiment in the North.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) – A debate about whether to have a northern or southern starting point for the Transcontinental Railroad led to argument over slavery in the new territories.

Organized Nebraska as a territory and, to win

southern support, proposed another state inclined to support slavery-Kansas. The Act allowed each to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of “popular sovereignty.”

Part of the Missouri Compromise had to be repealed to allow for this.

Bleeding Kansas – northerners rushed to Kansas to create an anti-slavery majority. People living along the Missouri border (border ruffians)rushed over to vote illegally for a pro-slavery legislature and to intimidate anti-slavery settlements.

March, 1856 – Kansas had 2 governments, one anti-slavery, one pro-slavery. Violence erupted (i.e., 200 people were killed and $2 million in property damage occurred in raid on Lawrence, KS.)

Raid on Lawrence, Kansas

Abolitionist John Brown came up with a radical plan to put an end to slavery in the South: organize and arm the slaves so they would revolt and gain their freedom.

In 1859, he planned to first take over the federal weapons arsenal at Harpers Ferry. The attempt failed (17 died.)

Brown and four of his men were convicted of treason and were hanged to death on December 2, 1859.

Despite the quick failure of Brown's planned slave revolt, he became a martyr for the abolitionists' cause. Although many in the North didn't agree with his violent actions, they did agree with his belief that slavery should be abolished.

John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry

Raid on Harper’s Ferry 1859