Antebellum America

ANTEBELLUM AMERICA1830-1860: The period BEFORE the Civil War

The 2nd Great Awakening The Abolition Movement was not the only movement going

on before the Civil War that tried to reform society. Some of these other movements were:

a. The 2nd Great Awakening-- a religious movement that tried to get more people involved in attending Protestant churches.

b. The temperance movement tried to get people to quit drinking.

One of the most long lasting movements was the Women’s Suffrage (voting) Movement. This movement was led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who continued fighting for women’s rights long after the Civil War. In 1848 they met in New York and wrote the Seneca Falls Declaration which stated that women should have the same rights as men, and was modeled after Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

Did the writing

Made the speeches

Organized the meetings

Drama Over Slavery The admission of new states continually

led to conflict over whether the new states would allow slaves and be called “slave states” or prohibit slavery and be called “free states.”

Several compromises were struck in attempts to keep a balance of power between the North and South in Congress.

Missouri Compromise Revisited

Missouri Compromise (1820) was created by Henry Clay in an attempt to keep the peace when Missouri applied for statehood. This compromise had three parts:

i. Missouri would be allowed to enter as a slave state

ii. Maine would be allowed to enter as a free state, thus ensuring a balance of power between slave and free states in the Senate

iii. A line would be drawn through the Louisiana Purchase at 36’30. Any land above the line (except for Missouri) would be free and any land below the line would be slave.

Manifest Destiny Justification for

western expansion– idea it is God’s will for the US to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

The Mexican-American War James K. Polk was elected

President in 1844 by running on a platform of Manifest Destiny.

He promised that if elected, the first thing he would do is annex Texas and Oregon. This was super popular and he was elected in a landslide. Politically, abolitionists split from the Whigs and formed a new party, descriptively named the “Free-Soil Party.” This party was opposed to the spread of slavery because they said it hurt the union by causing conflict and aggressive policies like promoting the Mexican-American War.

The War ItselfCauses Events Results

 1. Manifest Destiny2. Annexation of Texas3. Texas boundary dispute with Mexico

 1. Taylor invaded Texas2. Kearney took over California3. Scott invaded Mexico & captured the capitol: Mexico City

 The war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in which Mexico gave the US all of Texas & land to California

The California Question In 1849 gold was found at

Sutter’s Mill and people rushed to California to seek their fortunes. Suddenly California was ready to become a state. The problem was the Missouri Compromise Line would cut California in half! A new solution was needed.

In 1850 California and the other territories acquired from Mexico in the Mexican-American War applied to become part of the USA as free states. The South was deeply alarmed, especially because California was likely going to be a rich state due to the discovery of gold!

The Compromise of 1850 To settle this dispute, Senator

Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed the Compromise of 1850. This compromise called for three things:

i. California would enter as a free state

ii. The rest of the Southwest territories would decide whether to be slave or free by popular sovereignty (voting).

iii. To pacify the south, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act which allowed southern slave owners to retain their property rights by requiring northerners to return escaped slaves to the south.

The Democrats supported an idea called “popular sovereignty” in which people living in a territory would get to vote for which policy (slave or free soil) their territory would adopt. It was put into the Compromise of 1850 in order to resolve any future disputes over slavery in the territories.

As people started to move west, the first new territories ready to join the union were Kansas and Nebraska. The new policy of popular sovereignty had to be put into effect. However, there were no laws to do this.

  In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This

Act gave the people in Kansas and Nebraska the choice of whether to allow slaves in their state by putting popular sovereignty into effect.

The Fugitive Slave Act · Southerners grew alarmed by the

growing force of the Northern response to the abolitionists.

· Fugitive slave events pitted Southern slave owners against outraged Northerners who opposed returning escaped slaves to bondage.

· Part of the Compromise of 1850 included the Fugitive Slave Act in order to gain support from the South.

The Fugitive Slave Act said: ALL Americans (even in the North) had to help catch escaped slaves. Slaves were not freed just by reaching the North!

Dred Scott v. Sanford A final divisive point occurred in

1853 with the Supreme Court verdict in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott was a slave who was suing his master for freedom, arguing that because his owner had taken him to live in Ohio (free state) he was a free man. Therefore, he did NOT have to move back to the Missouri with his master. The Supreme Court ruled that Scott was not a free man, and had to return to slavery because as a slave, he was NOT a citizen of the USA and was not subject to its laws.

Bleeding Kansas The Republican party was born in 1854 and had a

platform of: a. Slavery was a “great moral, social and political evil” b. repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the

Fugitive Slave Act c. unite in battle against the expansion of slavery West

People from the North (free) and the South (slave) rushed to Kansas to get a majority and decide the slavery issue with popular sovereignty. This led to violence and the state became known as Bleeding Kansas.

As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, bloody fighting occurred in Kansas as pro and anti-slavery forces battled each other. Settlers began flooding into Kansas from neighboring Missouri to cast their votes for or against slavery. Fighting broke out and the affair became known as Bleeding Kansas Eventually, President Franklin Pierce (Democrats) sided with the South, and made Kansas a slave state.

Northern Democrats were so upset over Pierce’s decision regarding the “Bleeding Kansas” Affair that the party split. Opposition to slavery united the Northern Whigs with the Northern abolitionists and together they formed the Republican party. These Republicans opposed any further expansion of slavery.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates Because the Kansas-Nebraska Act was so controversial, its

writer, Stephen Douglas was challenged for his Senate seat by congressman Abraham Lincoln. The real issue was whether or not popular sovereignty was a good idea.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates took place in 1858 during the election for this spot in the Senate.

Lincoln

Douglas

Douglas Lincoln

1860 Election In February of 1861

representatives from 7 southern states met and drew up a constitution for the new nation known as the Confederate States of America The first and only president of this new country was Jefferson Davis

Start of the Civil War The Union refused to turn over

Ft. Sumter to the Confederates. When Lincoln tried to re-supply the fort, the Confederacy bombarded the fort and took it over. This marked the beginning of the Civil War.

Lincoln believed that no state may leave the union once it has joined. He said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In other words, the nation could not continue as half slave and half free.

Causes of the Civil WarMounting sectional tensions and a failure of political will led to the Civil War. · Sectional disagreements and debates over tariffs, extension

of slavery into the territories, and the nature of the Union (states’ rights)

· Northern abolitionists versus Southern defenders of slavery · United States Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case · Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe ·  Ineffective presidential leadership in the 1850s · A series of failed compromises over the expansion of slavery

in the territories · President Lincoln’s call for federal troops in 1861

The secession of Southern states triggered a long and costly war that concluded with Northern victory and resulted in the restoration of the Union and emancipation of the slaves.

The Civil War put constitutional government to its most important test as the debate over the power of the federal government versus states’ rights reached a climax. The survival of the United States as one nation was at risk, and the nation’s ability to bring to reality the ideals of liberty, equality, and justice depended on the outcome of the war.

At the Start in 1861

Advantages of the North Advantages of the South

a. More moneyb. More menc. More factories/suppliesd. More farmland for foode. Moral ideology

a. Better trained troops officers

b. More experienced officers

c. Home-field advantaged. Ideological motivation