You will need…1. Something to write with2. Your brain

Catalysts of the Civil War.

Meow.

• New additions to America (1820-1850): As new states are added to the Union (Louisiana Purchase territory slowly becoming individual states), congress had to decide if each state would be a free or slave state. Each new addition threatened the delicate balance of free and slave states, infuriated one side or the other, and led to heated debate

• The decision as to whether a state should be free or slave becomes an issue of state vs. federal power (should states have the right to decide slavery for themselves?? 10th amendment = state’s rights!!!).

The Missouri Compromise: write the info. in the left column in your notes

It did accomplish the following:

• Added Missouri as a slave state.• Added Alabama as a slave state.• Added Maine as a free state.• These choices made the balance

of power in the Senate at 12 states each.

• Drew a line across the Louisiana Territory at 36°30’ (line of latitude)- see map, next slide!– North of this line, slavery was

to be forever banned (except in Missouri).

– South of this line slaveholding was permitted.

However…

• The Missouri Compromise pleased no one.– Northern Congressman who

voted for it were ridiculed.– In the South, the ban on future

slavery was deeply resented.• Nothing about the issue of slavery

itself was solved; this was really a decision about POWER in the senate!!

• “If the Union must be dissolved, slavery is precisely the question on which it ought to break. For the present however, the contest is laid to sleep.” John Quincy Adams

2. Fugitive Slave Laws• Fugitive Slave Law (1850): STRICT Law

stating that all citizens had to help catch runaway slaves or face a $1000 fine or 6 months in jail. Northerners resented being forced to help capture runaway slaves. Southerners were elated to get slaves back but angry at lack of Northern support. (Judges who sent slaves back to the South were awarded with $10 for their work; but only $5 if person in question was freed!!)

Fallout of the Fugitive Slave law…

• Many northerners did not obey the law, angering southerners-- of the tens of thousands of fugitives living in the North, only 299 were captured and returned to their owners in the 1850s….yet another catalyst of war.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852):

Outraged by the Fugitive Slave Law, Harriet Beecher Stowe addressed the cruelty of slavery in the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It sold over 300,000 copies in its first year. This book created more abolitionists.

• http://video.pbs.org/video/2295592489/

Uncle Tom’s Cabin• Opened the eyes of many to the brutality of

slavery.• Made people more actively and openly

opposed to slavery.• Made Southerners crabby; one man cut off his

slave’s ear and sent it to Harriet!

Bleeding Kansas• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854): The remainder of the Louisiana

Purchase was divided into two separate territories, Kansas and Nebraska. In each territory, popular sovereignty (voters) would decide the question of slavery. This act repealed the earlier Missouri Compromise where slavery was banned North of Missouri. The Kansas-Nebraska Act led to violence between proslavery and anti-slavery groups who each rushed to the new territory to support their cause. Over 200 people died in pro-slavery vs. anti-slavery violence; some call the Kansas-Nebraska Act the official start of the Civil War.

“Bleeding Kansas”

The Dred Scott Decision 1857

• A Missouri SLAVE, named DRED SCOTT was suing for his freedom (after his master died).

• Many years earlier, DRED SCOTT had traveled to FREE territory (Wisconsin) with his owner and lived there for several years (then back to MO).

• Because of his time spent in a free territory, according to the MISSOURI Compromise, he was a free man.

• The Supreme Court of 1857 had 5 judges from the South and 4 judges from the North.

Harpers Ferry• Harper’s Ferry, VA (1859): John Brown, abolitionist, attempted

to start a slave revolt with 22 others at Harper’s Ferry, VA by raiding a federal arsenal and taking hostages. The plan failed and Brown was hanged, but Southerners began to fear abolitionists and slave rebellions/uprisings.

• “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”—wrote these words in a note that he handed to someone just before his execution- ON YOUR NOTES, RESPOND THE THIS QUOTE

The election of Lincoln to President• Lincoln was elected President in 1860 with just 40%

of the vote (all from the Northern states; Southern votes were divided between three candidates…Lincoln’s name didn’t even appear on the ballot in some southern states!!). With his election, the Southern states felt they had lost their voice in government.

• When elected, Lincoln stated he would not interfere with slavery in the South. He would even support enforcement of the Fugitive-Slave law, but added…• “Let there be no compromise on the question of extending

slavery.”

Secession• The Confederate States of America (CSA) formed in 1861--

even before Lincoln’s inauguration (March of ’61), seven states seceded from the Union:a. South Carolinab. Mississippic. Floridad. Alabamae. Georgiaf. Louisianag. Texas

• Lincoln responded by saying…– “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not mine, is the

momentous issue of civil war.”

The CSA chose Jefferson Davis as their President, wrote their own Constitution,

printed their own money….. 

This Means WAR!!April 12th, 1861 – Confederate Troops fire on

Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston, South Carolina Harbor.

Finally, let’s color a map!

DRAW IN West Virginia on your map!!!!!!