Civil War

Sectional Crisis

40 year of misunderstanding over expansion of slavery & powers of federal government1. Missouri Compromise2. Nullification Crisis of 18323. After Mexican-American War

a) Wilmot Provisob) Compromise of 1850c) Kansas-Nebraska Acts of 1854

Compromise of 1850

Apparent Causes of the War

1. Radical Abolitionism2. Liberty, Free Soil & Republican

Parties3. “Bleeding Kansas” 4. Dred Scott Decision5. Ascent of Lincoln

Dred Scott Decision

Purported Cause of the War

“This is a white man’s war.” ~ Popular Shibboleth

Politicians assert war was fought over different interpretations of the Constitution. Did the Constitution create: A. An indissoluble union in which state

identity was subsumed by national identity?

B. A confederation of convenience in which the federal government had power over matters of foreign policy & trade alone, but not over the internal politics of states?

Lincoln’s Tight-Wire Act

Lincoln maintained this was a war to preserve the Union & not to end slavery.

Promised to protect the rights of slave-holders within the South.

Wanted to check the expansion of slavery in the Western territories.

Balked at enlisting black troops:1. Feared alienating slave-holding Union states2. Preferred colonization3. Could not see whites & blacks living as equals in

America

A War to End Slavery

Abolitionists & African-American activists saw this as a war to end slavery.

Frederick Douglass: “Any attempt now to separate the freedom of the slave from the victory of the government—any attempt to secure peace to the whites while leaving the blacks in chains—will be labor lost.”

As such, blacks quickly moved to form volunteer militia companies & to volunteer to serve in battle.

Lincoln ignored their requests.

Emancipation

Came in stages as an exigency of war:

1. Contraband 2. Confiscation Acts3. Provisional & Final Emancipation

Proclamations(Did no grant universal emancipation.)

4. WLNL led a massive petition drive to secure 13th Amendment

Emancipation Proclamation

Black Military Service

1. Black Volunteer Companies (1861)

2. Militia Act of 1862

3. Final Emancipation Proclamation (1863)

4. USCT Bureau in War Department

5. Blacks Served Proportionally to Whites

6. Issues of Rank & Pay

7. Confederacy denies rights to black POWs

Remember Fort Pillow

“Then on the charge!”