Causes of the Civil War Several events led to the deep divisions between the North and South The people and events discussed in this Power Point are real.

Causes of the Civil War

Several events led to the deep divisions between the

North and South

The people and events discussed in this Power Point are real.

The result of these divisions was a four year war between the Northern free states against the Southern Slave states. This conflict killed over 600,000 American citizens and is to this day the costliest war we have ever fought. In this war brother fought brother and families were divided by belief and tragedy. Today we honor all those that perished on both sides and look back on this period to learn how it came about.

What was so different about the Northern and Southern States that they could no longer stay together?

• Industrial economy• Growth of cities• Railroads increased

commerce• Yankee clippers increased

foreign trade• New machines helped produce

more goods• Artisans formed trade unions• Wave of immigrants supplied

labor

LIFE IN THE NORTH

LIFE IN THE SOUTH

• Agricultural economy• Invention of the cotton

gin increased planters’ profits

• “Cottonocracy”• Plantation System• African Americans

enslaved• Resistance to slavery• Few large cities• Limited industry• Limited Transportation

The History of Slavery in America

The Middle Passage

Now let’s see how slavery impacted the years before the Civil War. Remember, the United States had just acquired a lot of

new lands:• Louisiana Purchase

(1803)• Florida Cession (1819)• Texas (1845)• Oregon Territory (1849)• Mexican Cession(1850)• Gadsden

Territory(1854)

The question is, will these new lands be free or have slavery?

Manifest Destiny

The Northwest Ordinance• The Northwest

ordinance of 1787 outlined settler’s rights but it did place a ban on slavery in the new states that were carved out of the territory

Henry Clay saves the day

The Missouri Compromise of 1820• Adding Missouri as a new

slave state would upset the balance between slave states and Free Sates in the Senate. Southerners argued that the Constitution did not give Congress the right to ban slavery. Meanwhile Maine wanted statehood, Henry Clay created a compromise. He kept the balance by adding Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

No new slave states can be added above this line after the compromise was reached.

The Nullification CrisisIn 1828 at the end of the John Quincy

Adams presidency Congress passed a bill that raised the tariff on raw materials and manufactured goods. The South was outraged, Southerners felt the economic interests of the Northeast was determining national policy. They called it the Tariff of Abominations and threatened to secede if not lifted. Andrew Jackson with the help of Henry Clay worked out a compromise to lower the tariff if South Carolina stopped talking about secession.

The Wilmot Proviso /1846

After the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Political disagreements over slavery seemed to go away. But, the new territory won after the War with Mexico renewed the fight over slavery. Northerners wanted to ban the expansion of slavery and Southerners viewed their slaves as property giving them the right to bring them into the new territories. Representative David Wilmot proposed an amendment to outlaw slavery in any territory acquired in the War with Mexico. The bill did not pass but it divided Congress and created a new Free-Soil political party. The party was dedicated to stopping the expansion of slavery.

The Compromise of 1850

The first state to ask for statehood from the Mexican Cession territories was California. California wanted to be a free state but could not gain statehood without the approval of Congress. Again the balance in the Senate would be upset. Senator Henry Clay the man who wrote the Compromise of 1820 stepped in again to create the Compromise of 1850.

• To please the North, California would be allowed to enter as a free state and the slave trade would be banned from Washington D.C.

• To please the South, Congress would not pass any more laws for the rest of the territories won from Mexico and Congress would pass a stronger law to help recapture runaway slaves.

I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a

northern man but as an American…I

speak today for the preservation of

the Union. Hear me for my causeDaniel Webster.

Henry Clay

The Fugitive Slave Act / 1850

A person accused of being a runaway slave could be recaptured without an arrest warrant. The presence of slave catchers in the North brought the horrors of slavery into their homes. Southerners felt the Act was justified because they considered slaves as property.

Slaves had to run all the way to Canada to avoid the slave catchers.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a play called Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. It portrayed the moral issues of slavery. The book was widely popular in the North but was criticized in the South as being falsely critical of slave owners.

The Kansas- Nebraska Act

The issue of slavery brought bloodshed out West. In 1854 the territory of Nebraska was to be divided into two states Kansas and Nebraska. To get Southern support for the bill, Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed that the issue of slavery in these two states be settled through popular sovereignty - a system where the residents vote to decide an issue. This meant that if the people of each state could vote on slavery the Missouri Compromise was no longer the law. Any state north or south of the line could determine for itself the issue of slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

Soon (1855) Kansas would turn into a battle ground as anti-slavery Northerners and pro-slavery Southerners rushed into the territory to cast their votes. Five thousand Missourians came and voted illegally creating a pro –slavery government in Kansas. The anti-slavery people formed their own government. In May, a proslavery mob attacked the town of Lawrence Kansas. The attackers destroyed the house of the governor of the anti-slavery government.

In response an abolitionist named John Brown attacked his pro-slavery neighbors killing five people. This set off a three year war in Kansas known as Bleeding Kansas.

Dred Scott v. Sanford

Dred Scott was a slave that was taken into a free states for a short time. After returning to Missouri his owner died and Scott sued for his freedom claiming that because he had once lived in a free state he should remain free.

The case of Dred Scott v. Sanford reached the Supreme Court in 1856. Cheif Justice Roger B. Taney delivered his opinion. The court stated that Dred Scott was not a person but property, and that property can not use the courts to sue for anything. In addition, Taney told Congress that they could not ban slavery in the territories because that would deny a citizens’ right to property. Property is protected by the fifth amendment.

Southerners cheered the Court’s decision. Many Northerners were outraged and looked to the Republican party to halt the growing power of slaveholders.

What did he call me!

John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry

In 1859, John Brown an abolitionist, had an idea to create a slave army that would rise up and fight for their freedom. He traveled to Harpers Ferry Virginia to capture a U.S. arsenal.

On October 16, 1859 Brown and 18 followers captured the arsenal and Brown sent out the word to rally and arm local slaves.

But no slaves joined the fight. The U.S. marines led by Robert E. Lee captured John Brown while killing ten of his followers

Brown was tried for murder, convicted and hung by his neck. Abolitionists tolled bells and mourned his death.

Lincoln and Douglas Debate 1858

After the Dred Scott decision the Republicans looked to someone that could challenge the Southern slaveholders. They picked Abraham Lincoln to challenge Stephen Douglas for the Illinois senate seat. The two men held formal debates all over the state of Illinois allowing people to see where the two men stood on slavery.

Lincoln said that slavery was “ a moral, a social and a political wrong,” he argued that slavery should not be expanded. He also worried that slavery would have to be solved one way or the other.

“ A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Douglass argued that popular sovereignty should allow the voters of each new state to decide if they want slavery. But the Dred Scott decision would not allow voters to remove another person’s property rights. Douglass argued that voters not the Supreme Court decides the laws in a state. Douglas would win the election to the Senate but Lincoln would continue to impress the Republicans.

The Presidential Election of 1860

The election of 1860 was a race between four candidates.

• Lincoln (Republican),

• Douglas (Northern Democrat),

• Breckinridge (Southern Democrat)

• Bell (Constitutional Union)

The South split their votes and Lincoln won the North giving him the Presidency.

Southern States Secede

Before the election the south warned that if Lincoln won

they would secede, or withdraw form the Union.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede. During the next weeks six other states would secede: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,

Louisiana, and Texas.

These states formed the Confederate States of America

and Elected their own President Jefferson Davis.

They also drafted a Confederate Constitution

protecting slavery and supporting state’s rights.

In the next months Northerners and Southerners would wait and watch to see what Lincoln would do.

We’re Out of here!

Resistance to Slavery