THE ROAD TO THE CIVIL WAR Events that led to the South seceding and the beginning of the Civil War.

THE ROAD TO THE CIVIL WAR

Events that led to the South seceding and the

beginning of the Civil War

Passed by Henry ClayThree parts 1.Missouri would be slave 2. Maine would be free.• 3. All new states north of

the 36 degree latitude would be free and south would be slave.

“The Missouri Compromise”1820 By Henry Clay

Compromises over Slavery 1820-1854

Conflicting views

• 1844 – conflicts over annexation of Texas

• 1846 - Wilmot Proviso – Senator Wilmot attempted to ban slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico

• Southerners disagreed• John C. Calhoun – proposed that

Congress did NOT have the power to ban slavery

• 1848- Debates led to a new political party

• Called The Free Soil Party• promising “Free-soil, speech, labor, and

free men.” • Did not win presidential race, but several

seats in Congress

• By 1850 there were 15 slave states and 15 free states.

• California wanted to enter as a free state. (New Mexico, Oregon, Utah)

North and South divided on parts of Clay’s plan

Stephen Douglas divided Clay’s plan into 5 separate bills – voted on and passed individually

1.Allowed California to be free (north)

2. New Mexico Territory open to slavery. (south)

3.Stronger fugitive slave laws. (south)

4.Slave trade to be ended in District of Columbia (DC) (North)

5. Slavery would continue in DC (South).

•Compromise of 1850(written by Henry Clay

• Passed in 1850. Required people to help capture and return slaves.

• Those who didn’t could be put in jail or fined

• Many Northerners refused to cooperate

•The Fugitive Slave Act

• Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 About the evils of slavery and was circulated throughout the North and other countries.

•Uncle Tom’s Cabin

KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT

• Kansas and Nebraska both lay north of the 36 degree line and were not included in the Compromise of 1850. When they applied for statehood it stirred up trouble again.

• Passed in 1854• People would

decide for themselves whether to be free or slave. Called popular sovereignty.

• Kansas-Nebraska Act

• Both proslavery and anti-slavery people rushed to Kansas to influence the people’s vote

• Border ruffians - came in and voted illegally in favor of slavery

• Kansas became a slave state

• Anti-slavery people refused and set up their own government.

• Conflict in Kansas/Bleeding Kansas

• Two governments in Kansas. One for and the other against it.

• The two forces, fought and many people were killed. (First time blood was shed concerning slavery.) Fighting continued for months.

• Retailiation led by John Brown at Pottawatomie Creek Massacre

• Conflict in Congress – Rep. Preston Brooks beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane over opposing views

• Bleeding Kansas

• Dred Scott - a Missouri slave who moved with his owner from the South to live for a time in Illinois, a place where slavery was illegal

•The Dred Scott Case 1857

• When Dred Scott’s owner died, he sued for his freedom claiming that he had lived on free soil

• The judge declared Scott was property and did not have any rights.

• Also declared because slaves were property, nobody had the constitutional right to make slavery illegal.

•The Court Case

• The Birth of the Republican

• Party

• 1854 – Antislavery Whigs and Antil Slavery Democrates joined Free-Soilers (Free-soil, speech, labor, and free men.)to form Republican party -antislavery as their platform

•

• 1858 – Lincoln(R) and Douglas (D) ran against each other for Illinois Senate seat in Freeport Illinois

• First time slavery was the center of debates

• Lincoln – thought slavery was morally wrong, but only sought to end the SPREAD of it (not ending it where it already existed)

• Douglas – sought popular sovereignty for new states, Freeport Doctrine

• Douglas wins, but Lincoln becomes known

• / • Lincoln• Douglas

Debates

• John Brown led a group of whites and free African Americans in a raid on an arsenal at Harpers Ferry Va.

• The aim was to arm slaves and spark a slave uprising.

•John Brown

• The plan failed and he was captured. He was found guilty of treason and hanged.

• Remembered as a martyr.

• This led to an even farther gap between the North and the South

• John Brown – • Hero or

murderer?

• Democrat Party split votes (Steven Douglass, Breckinridge, Bell, )

Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. (Northern States)

Lincoln wasn’t even on the ballot in the South

• Lincoln won because Democrats were so divided

•The Election of 1860

1. SECTIONIALISM- extreme loyalty to one part of the country. Loyalty to your state and/or the South.

2. STATES RIGHTS – The states should have the right to govern themselves if they choose. The government violated the Constitution, therefore the states should have the right to leave the Union

•Why Secession- The 3 S’s

• 3. SLAVERY- The South believed that their way of life was very different from the North; they needed slaves for their economy to survive.

South Carolina –first, November 20 1860.

By February 1861, six other states left

•Seceding from the Union

Warm-up

•Read “What do you think on page 450-451 and answer numbers 1-3

A SOUTHERN GOVERNMENT

February 4 1861 leaders set up a new government.

Capital- Richmond Virginia.

The Confederate States of America.

Jefferson Davis -President.

FORT SUMTER Fort Sumter was a federally owned fort in South Carolina – short on supplies

Lincoln ordered supplies to the fort.

The Confederates took Lincoln’s actions as a threat and began attacking Fort Sumter before the supplies could arrive – April 12 1861

Right after four more states seceeded

The Civil War Begins