Warm Up
• 1. List as many causes of the civil war as you can think of. -1 minute
• 2. Write the effect of each event in 5 words or less. – 1 minutes
• 3. Turn to a neighbor. Neighbor on the right share your answers for 1 minute. Stop. Other Neighbor shares.
Causes of War• Mexican War • Compromise of 1850• Kansas-Nebraska Act 1855• Underground Railroad • Personal liberty laws• Uncle Tom’s Cabin• Brooks-Sumner canning • Sack of Lawrence, Kansas• Potawatomie Massacre • Dred Scott vs. Sanford 1857 • John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry• Formation of the Republican Party• Abraham Lincoln’s election• Secession of S.C.
Politics leading up to the Civil War
• 1848 - Zachary Taylor (Whig party) elected president. Unclear on slavery stance during election.
• From South but against extension of slavery. • Lewis Cass runs against Taylor and is in favor of popular
sovereignty. • Free-Soil Party forms.• Taylor died after only sixteen months in office, and Vice
President Millard Fillmore became president in 1850.• Fillmore supports compromise of 1850.
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Election of 1852
• Franklin Pierce (from North, pro-slavery) is elected from the Democratic party.
• Pierce beats Whig candidate Winfield Scott. Whig party now split between North and South.
• Nativism grows – favors native-born Americans. anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic. “No nothing political party represents natavist
Republican Party Emerges 1854
• United against extension of slavery.
• Made up of many former Whigs, members of the Free Soil Party, and a few anti-slavery Democrats.
• 1858 Illinois Senate Race (Lincoln-Douglas Debates).
• Freeport Doctrine – People in territories could use popular sovereignty to either enforce laws protecting slaves as property or not.
Election of 1856
• James Buchanan wins election for Democrats.• Republicans have a strong showing in their
first national election .• Buchanan supports Lecompton Constitution –
which was a pro-slavery constitution for Kansas’s admission to the Union. It was boycotted by anti-slavery folks in Kansas.
Candidate Party View on SlaveryAbraham Lincoln
Republican Opposed the spread of slavery
John C. Breckinridge
Southern Democrat
Pro slavery
Stephen Douglas
Northern Democrat
Popular sovereignty
John Bell Constitutional Union
Ignored the issue
Election of 1860
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The Union Breaks UP• Lincoln’s victory convinced the South that they
had lost their voice in the national government.• S.C. leads the way, seceding Dec. 20th, 1860.• Confederate States of America (C.S.A) formed in
Feb, 1861. Original 7 states made up of South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
• Jefferson Davis elected President of C.S.A.• President Buchanan says secession is illegal but
does nothing about it.