Download - The Union in Crisis
SECTIONALISM
The Union in Crisis
Slavery Divides the Nation
Northern Views on Slavery African Americans inferior in North Many Northerners were never exposed to slavery
Southern Views on Slavery Integral part of their economy Claimed slaves were healthier than Northern wage
laborers
Politics About Slavery
Wilmot-Proviso Ban slavery in land acquired from Mexico
Free-Soil Party Supports the Wilmot-Proviso
Popular Sovereignty Allow the people in the state to vote whether it should
be slave or free
Compromise Over Slavery
John C. Calhoun – Southerner supports slavery
Daniel Webster – Northerner who opposes slavery
Henry Clay – Representative of the west
Compromise of 1850 – California was admitted as a free state and popular sovereignty was applied to land acquired from Mexico
Fugitive Slave Act
Northerners were required to return a fugitive slave to their owner – helping a fugitive slave would result in fines and/or jail time
Personal liberty laws in the North went against the Fugitive Slave Act
Northern Abolition
Underground Railroad – Harriet Tubman
Harriet Beecher Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin in which Northerners learned the horrors of slavery
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Nullifies the Missouri Compromise which entered Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state
The Kansas-Nebraska Act created potential for slavery in Kansas and Nebraska territories by allowing popular sovereignty
Violence Over Slavery
“Bleeding Kansas” Violence erupts over popular sovereignty John Brown – abolitionist fighting against slavery Proves popular sovereignty will not work
“The Caning of Charles Sumner” Preston Brooks beats Sumner over his remarks over
slavery and the South
Political Realignment
The Whig Party vanishes due to Millard Fillmore supporting California as a free state
Know-Nothing Party – Nativist groupRepublican Party is born supporting
opposition to slavery Democrats win election of 1856 – James
Buchanan
Dred Scott
Dred Scott claims he is a free man based on living in the Illinois/Wisconsin territory with his slave owner
Roger Taney and the Supreme Court rule that a slave is property and have no rights as a citizen to be heard or to appeal to a court
Dred Scott loses – The Southerners celebrate – Northerners are fearful about the slavery issue
The Rise of Abe Lincoln
Lincoln/Douglas Debates – Set Abe Lincoln on the national stage as a honest, moral, well-educated person who opposed the Dred Scott decision
Harpers Ferry
John Brown raids and seizes an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia
John Brown and his men get captured and Brown gets executed
Brown’s execution creates a divide between North and South – North see him as a martyr and the South see him as a villian
Lincoln, Secession, and War
Republicans nominate Abe Lincoln for President
Lincoln wins the election of 1860 – did not receive one electoral vote from the South
A growing political divide occurs between North and South
Southerners were outraged a person could be elected President without a single southern electoral vote
Secession
Southern states start seceding from the Union
South Carolina is the first state to secedeThe Confederate States of America is started
President Jefferson DavisA final compromise fails – Crittenden
Compromise
WAR!
Lincoln takes action – sends food relief to Fort Sumter
Northerners were attacked at Fort Sumter Surprise attack
Fort Sumter falls to the Confederacy Other states secede including Virginia, Arkansas,
Tennessee, and North Carolina The Confederacy quickly draws in volunteer militia
Both North and South made themselves ready for what they thought would be a short war