The Eve of Civil War. North vs. South The North The North 1860 Population = 22 million 1860 Population = 22 million Industrial society Industrial society.

The Eve of Civil War

North vs. South The North

1860 Population = 22 million

Industrial society Fluid, dynamic,

growing

The South 1860 Population

= 9 million (3.5 to 4 million slaves)

Agricultural society

Static, conservative society

Antebellum North Industrialization

continued More inventions

John Deere: steel edged plow Cyrus McCormick: reaper

Working conditions Late 1830s: good (attraction

of west) After 1837: worse (surplus of

labor => immigration) Transportation /

communication Telegraph, Pony Express

(1860) Savannah (1819) – first

oceanic steamship Clipper ships, through 1850s

Importance: united Western farms with NE industry to create industrial North

Antebellum North Immigration

Rapid increase in immigration from Ireland, Germany

Ireland: UK oppression, potato famine

Germany: autocratic rulers, failed revolutions of 1830 & 1848

US seen as escape, place of hope

Irish to cities in NE Germans to farms,

cities of Midwest

Antebellum North Perception of

immigration Threat to “American

way of life” Economics Religion (“Popery”) Language

Reaction to immigration Discrimination

(“NINA”) American (“Know

Nothing”) Party Plunge in work

conditions

Ad, New York Times (1854)

Antebellum North Cheap labor, strikes,

led to reform Child labor Shorter work day Work conditions

“Organized labor” emerges 1834: Nat’l Trades

Union – America’s first union

Antebellum South Social Structure

Planters – owned at least 20 slaves

50,000 in 1860 2,500 owned 100-

500 slaves 3 owned 500+

slaves Small Slave Owners

Owned 2-3 slaves Not accepted into

planter society Small farmers

No slaves (looked up to planters)

Laborers & tenants Skilled crafters Mobile

Planter’s home(1861)

Antebellum South Social structure,

cont. Poor whites

Subsistence farmers Generally anti-

slavery “Poor white trash”;

“Piney white folks”; “crackers”

Free blacks Born or set free Often educated Lived in cities, for

safety Slaves

House slaves Field workers

Antebellum South South nickname =

“King Cotton” 1791: 4000 bales

(500 lbs. each) of cotton produced

1793: invention of cotton gin

1860: 4 million bales produced

1860, cotton represented 2/3 of all US exports

Road to Civil War: Slavery Debate

Anti-Slavery justifications Religion:

Christian ethic Morality: slavery

utterly evil Humanity:

disruption of families, cruel treatment of other humans

Freedom: denied political, civil rights

Enlightened thinking: equality denied

Pro Slavery justifications Slaves were inferior,

uncivilized, child like “classical” civilizations

used slaves Better than “wage slave”

Northern system “Cotton Kingdom”, US

depended on slavery Bible upheld slavery Slavery was profitable Fear of change in

relationship between whites, blacks

No alternative to slavery, in South

Slavery seen as a positive good (unified South)

Road to Civil War: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Dred Scott was a slave owned by an army doctor

Owner moved to free state (Illinois)

Scott: am I free because I’m in a free state?

Supreme Court: NO! Any person descended from

a black African was not a citizen

MO Compromise was unconstitutional, b/c Congress did not have power to free all Black Africans or give them citizenship (5th Am)

Effectively, SC said slaves were property, it could not be excluded from North or the territories

North horrified!

Dred Scott

Chief JusticeRoger Taney

Road to Civil War Lincoln-Douglas

Debates, 1858 Lincoln: coming of

age of Republican cause

Douglas: popular sovereignty survived Dred Scott

Douglas won Senate seat, but Lincoln gained national attention

John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry, 1859 Southern militias

started training after raid

Secession talk increased w/ approaching election

Election of 1860 Four candidates

Northern Ds: Douglas (status quo, pop. Sovereignty)

Southern Ds: Breckenridge (protect slavery, S. rights)

Republican: Lincoln (against extension of slavery) (not on 10 ballots, in South)

Constitutional Union: Bell (status quo)

People went to polls knowing that six states would secede if Lincoln elected

ResultsLincoln (R): 180 ECV / 1,865,593Breckenridge (SD): 72 ECV / 1,382,713Douglas (ND): 12 ECV / 848,356Bell (U): 39 ECV / 592,906

Abraham Lincoln Born in KY, 1809,

log cabin Little formal

education – self taught

6’5” tall, very strong – “wrassler”

Moved to Springfield at age 21

New Orleans trip (1832)

Became attorney, 1 term Congressman, President

Secession South saw election of

Lincoln as radicalization of Union

Secession by inauguration (4/61): SC, MI, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX TX – ¼ of entire Federal

army surrendered, joined confederacy

Feb 1861: Jefferson Davis (US Senator from SC) took oath of office as President of CSA

VA, AK, NC, TN joined CSA after Fort Sumter surrender

MO, KY divided between N, S

WV formed out of VA (anti-slavery part)