Prelude to the Civil War

SSUSH8a Explain how slavery became a significant issue in American politics; include the slave rebellion of Nat Turner and the rise of abolitionism (William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglas, and the Grimke sisters).

SSUSH8b Explain the Missouri Compromise and the issue of slavery in western states and territories.

SSUSH8c Describe the Nullification Crisis and the emergence of states’ rights ideology; include the role of John C. Calhoun and development of sectionalism.

Essential Question

How did slavery become a significantissue in American politics?

Slavery: “A Great National Sin”

• Abolition– movement to end slavery

• Increase in the number of anti-slavery societies in the United States– more than 100 by 1820s

• African-Americans were joined by whites in public criticism of slavery.

The Rise of Abolitionism

The Rise of Abolitionism

Nat Turner

• Born into slavery in 1800 in Virginia.

• He became a preacher.

• Believed that God had chosen him to lead his people out of bondage.

• Believed that God would send him signs to let him know when to rebel.

• Sign #1: drops of blood on corn

• Sign #2: solar eclipse

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

• Began August 21, 1831– Southhampton County,

Virginia

• Rebellion began with Turner killing his master, his master’s wife, and his 2 children.

• He (and his followers) went around from plantation to plantation killing slave owners and their families.

• In two days, Turner and his followers killed about 60 people.

• Nat Turner managed to hide in a swamp for 6 weeks.– Captured and

hanged.

Pro-Slavery Arguments

• Bible– “slaves obey your masters”– Ephesians 6:5

• Civilize and Christianize– slaves were better people because they practiced

religion

• Myth of the Happy Slave– Northern slaves were overworked and always sick– Southerners welcomed slaves as “a part of the

family” and took care of them.

Missouri Prepares to Enter the Union

• Recall: What requirement must a territory satisfy in order to apply for statehood?

• Until 1818, the United States had consisted of ten free states and ten slave states.

• Illinois was admitted as a free state in 1818. Southerners expected that the next state would be a slave state, thus maintaining the balance between free states and slave states in Congress.

Missouri: Let the Battle Begin

• Northern Congressman amended Missouri’s statehood bill to require that Missouri gradually free its slaves.

• Bill passed the House.• Southerners blocked the bill’s

passage in the Senate.• Alabama was admitted to the Union

as a slave state.• Count is now 11 free and 11 slave

Missouri Compromise

• Maine was admitted as a free state while Missouri was admitted as a slave state.

• Preserved the balance of power.• STATE COUNT: 12 free states and 12 slave

states• Established 36°30‘ north latitude was the

dividing line for slavery.• For dividing the rest of the Louisiana Territory• North of the line (except Missouri) slavery was

illegal• South of the line slavery was legal

Tariff of Abominations

• Goal of the tariff was to protect industry in the northern United States, which were being driven out of business by low-priced European and particularly British manufactured goods.

• This prompted the U.S. to put a tax on imported goods.

• By reducing the importation of British goods, it also made it difficult for the British to pay for the cotton they imported from the South.

Tariff of Abominations

• Forced the south to buy more expensive Northern manufactured goods.

• Southern states thought that the north was getting rich at the expense of the south.

• Strongest response came from South Carolina.

John C. Calhoun

• Served as vice president under John Adams and Andrew Jackson.

• Supported earlier tariffs.

• Angry with the 1828 tariff because of the harmful effect that it had on South Carolina– Failed to recover from economic depression– Low cotton prices– Plantation owners and slaves moved out of

state to more fertile land.

Nullification Theory

• Questioned the legality of applying some federal laws in sovereign states.

• If the Constitution was based on a compact among the sovereign states, then each state had the right to nullify, or reject, a federal law that it considered unconstitutional.

• If the federal government refused to permit a state to nullify a federal law, the state had the right to secede or withdraw from the Union.

Calhoun Resigns and South Carolina’s Defiance

• Calhoun resigned as Andrew Jackson’s Vice-President.

• Congress passed another tariff in 1832 that South Carolina legislators found unacceptable.– Declared the tariff “unauthorized by the

Constitution” and “null, void, and no law.”

• South Carolina threatened to secede if the federal government tried to enforce the tariff.

South Carolina’s Defiance (continued)

• Andrew Jackson became furious.• Threatened to send federal troops to

South Carolina to enforce the tariff. – Bloody confrontation seemed inevitable.

• Henry Clay stepped in a proposed a lower tariff that would gradually lower duties over a ten-year period.– Tensions calmed.

SSUSH8d Describe the war with Mexico and the Wilmot Proviso.  SSUSH8e Explain how the Compromise of 1850 arose out of territorial expansion and population growth. SSUSH9a Explain the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the failure of popular sovereignty, Dred Scott case, and John Brown’s Raid.

Essential Question

How did the Compromise of 1850 ease the tensions between southern

states and northern states?

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• February 2, 1848• Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande border

for Texas and ceded (gave up) New Mexico and California to the United States.

• US agreed to pay $15 million.– Land area included present-day California,

Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

Wilmot Proviso

• Proposed by Pennsylvania Democrat David Wilmot on August 8, 1846.

• “neither slavery or involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in any territory the United States might acquire as a result of the war with Mexico.

• Southern states believed that the Wilmot Proviso would permanently shift the balance of power in favor of free states.

Compromise of 1850

• Drafted by Henry Clay (remember him?).• He hoped that these proposals would settle

“all questions in controversy between the free and slave states, growing out of the subject of slavery.”

• Satisfied the North– California would be admitted as a free state

• Satisfied the South– a new and more effective fugitive slave law

Compromise of 1850

• Satisfied both– popular sovereignty

•The right of residents of a territory to vote for or against slavery.

•New Mexico and Utah would be the first to have this right.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Introduced on January 23, 1854 by Stephen Douglas

• Repealed the Missouri Compromise.– Remember the dividing line for slavery?

• Established popular sovereignty for Kansas and Nebraska.

“Bleeding” Kansas

• Thousands of people flooded Kansas in an effort to weigh in on its status as a free state or slave state.

• March 1855, the election was held.• Many people from Missouri illegally crossed

state lines and voted in the election.– THEY HAD GUNS!

• Kansas became a slave state.

The

Dred Scott

Decision

Dred Scott Case

• a slave from Missouri

• Scott’s owner had taken him north of the Missouri Compromise line in 1834.

• They lived in Illinois and Wisconsin, free states, for four years.

• Scott and his owner later returned to Missouri, where his owner died.

• Scott claimed that he had become a free person by living in free territory for several years.– in order to gain his

freedom

Dred Scott Case: The Decision

• The Court ruled that slaves did not have the rights of citizens.

• Furthermore, Dred Scott had no claim to freedom, because he had been living in Missouri, a slave state, where he began his suit.

• The Court also ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.– Congress could not forbid slavery in any part

of the territories.

Dred Scott Case: The Reaction

• Southerners cheered the Court’s decision.• Northerners were stunned.• By striking down the Missouri

Compromise, the Supreme Court had cleared the way for the extension of slavery.

• Opponents of slavery now pinned their hopes on the Republican Party to keep slavery “in check.”

John Brown’s Raid On Harper’s

Ferry

Harper’s Ferry: The Preparation

• John Brown studied slave uprisings in Rome and Haiti.

• Believed similar uprisings could succeed in the United States.

• Secretly obtained financial backing from several prominent Northern abolitionists.

Harper’s Ferry

• October 16, 1859

• Led 21 men (black and white) into Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.

• His aim was to seize the federal arsenal there, distribute the captured arms to slaves in the area, and start a general slave uprising.

Harper’s Ferry

• Managed to hold sixty people hostage.• Expected the hostages’ slaves to join the

revolt.– THEY DIDN’T BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT

INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.

• Local troops killed eight of Brown’s men.• On December 2, 1859, Brown was hanged

for high treason in the presence of federal troops and a crowd of observers.

Stephen A. Douglas Abraham Lincoln

The Election of 1860

• There were three major candidates on the ballot.

• Lincoln was the winner.

• He received less than half of the popular vote.

• He received no electoral votes from the South.

• Lincoln had sectional rather than national support.

• He did not even appear on the ballot in the South.

Order of Secession

• South Carolina– December 20, 1860

• Mississippi– January 9, 1861

• Florida– January 10, 1861

• Alabama– January 11, 1861

• Georgia– January 19, 1861

• Louisiana– January 26, 1861

• Texas– February 1, 1861

• Virginia– April 17, 1861

Order of Secession

• Arkansas– May 6, 1861

• North Carolina– May 20, 1861

• Tennessee– June 8, 1861

Secession

Confederate States of America

• Formed on February 4, 1861.

• Montgomery, Alabama

• Jefferson Davis was elected president.