Events Leading to The Civil War

Four Factors of Division• Economic Interests

• Westward Expansion

• Slavery

• Debates over the nature of the Union

Slavery and States’ Rights

• Trying to work out these issues led to a series crises and compromises developed

• Admission of new states – crisis• Would it be admitted as “free” or

“slave” state?• Failure to settle these differences

will lead to Civil War

The Northern states became increasingly industrial - based on manufacturing. They favored high protective tariffs to protect Northern manufacturers from foreign competition.

However, these tariffs are so high, that Americans cannot, for the most part, afford to buy foreign, imported goods.

The Southern - agricultural economy based on a labor force of slaves on plantations in the lowlands along the Atlantic and in the Deep South, and small subsistence farmers in the foothills and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains.

The South strongly opposed high protective tariffs, which raised the price of imported manufactured goods.

These divisions so great that by 1830, many began to identify more with their region or state than the nation as a whole.

Balance of PowerEscalation of Tensions

• 30 years before the Civil War• Crises often related to the number of “Free”

versus “Slave” states because of balance of power this would give in Congress between the North and South

• As we move West, becomes more of a crisis

• Abolitionist movement grows in the North after 1830

Slavery and States’ Rights• The abolitionist (wanted to end slavery)

movement grew in the North, led by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator, an antislavery newspaper, and many New England religious leaders, who saw slavery as a violation of Christian principles.

Garrison declared, "I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD."

The Abolitionist MovementHarriet Beecher Stowe, wife of a New England clergyman, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which showed the cruelties of slavery Best-selling novel that caused many Northerners to join the anti-slavery cause.Abolitionists received a positive response in the North

Southerners were frightened by the growing strength of theabolitionist movement and Threat of slave rebellions

Gabriel’s Rebellion and Nat Turner’s Rebellion (Virginia)

• 1800 - Gabriel Prosser• Virginia Slave• Planned Rebellion in

Richmond, Virginia• Prosser and 34 other

slaves killed after their plot was uncovered

Nat Turner’s Rebellion 1831Turner a slave in Southampton County, Virginia, claiming divine inspiration, armed recruits with axes and clubs and traveled through the county, killing 55 whites in his attempt to lead Virginia slaves into freedom.

Slave owners in Virginia crushed Nat Turner’s Rebellion, killing Turner and more than 100 of his slave-recruits. The largest and bloodiest slave revolt in the South

Effects of Rebellions

• Increased white southerner’s fears of slave rebellions

• Southern state legislatures pass stricter slave codes (the laws that governed lives of African-American slaves)

• After rebellions, those

Southerners who did

harbor anti-slavery

feelings became silent

Missouri Compromise

Missouri applied for admission as a slave state. Henry Clay proposed the Missouri Compromise (1820)Missouri admitted as slave state, Maine as free state - Equal at 12 free, 12 slave states – Senate EqualDrew an east-west line through the Louisiana Territory at 36° 30’ with states north of the line free and south of the line, slave, except that slavery was allowed in Missouri, north of the line.

North and South argued about whether new states would allow slaveryAdmission of states could change the balance of power in Congress

So….

• After the Missouri Compromise, it was important for Congress to keep number of slave and free states even

• As long as this was true, US Senate remained evenly divided between slave South and free North.

But then, there’s California

• 1849, the Gold Rush occurs in California when gold is discovered

• Thousands move to California

• California asks to be admitted to the union as a free state.

• Threatens balance between free and slave states. Again.

Henry Clay – “The Great Compromiser”

allowed California to become a state. Congress almost rejected California's constitution in 1850. Southerners argued that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 should be extended to divide California in half. They would have allowed slavery in the southern region. But the southerners finally agreed to admit California as a part of a deal worked out by Senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.

Proposed the Compromise of 1850Previously Proposed the Missouri Compromise1833 Tariff Compromise

Four Part Deal – Compromise of 1850

• California entered as a free state• New Mexico and Utah territories created with *popular

sovereignty provision• Abolished the slave trade, but not slavery itself in

Washington, DC• Stricter *Fugitive Slave law

Popular sovereignty – Under this provision, each territory would decide if they would allow slavery in their territory

Tougher fugitive slave laws – easier for owners and slave catchers to capture and return fugitive slaves

Fugitive Slave Law

• Northerners HATED the new, tougher Fugitive Slave Law

• It returned runaway slaves from the free North to the slave South

• It pitted Southern slave owners against outraged Northerners who held opposite views of the fugitive slave law

Slavery and States’ Rights

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise line by giving people in Kansas and Nebraska the choice whether to allow slavery in their states (“popular sovereignty”).

• This law produced bloody fighting in Kansas as pro- and anti-slavery forces battled each other. It also led to the birth of the Republican Party that same year to oppose the spread of slavery.

The Kansas turmoil led to open warfare after John Brown sought revenge for the "sack of Lawrence" by murdering five proslavery settlers in cold blood at Pottawatomie Creek in May, 1856. In retaliation against Brown's raid, the proslavery forces killed five free-soilers.

Slavery and States’ Rights

• Southerners argued that individual states could nullify laws passed by the Congress.

John C. Calhoun had put forth the idea of “Nullification” in 1832 in response to the Tariff of Abominations

Slavery and States’ Rights

• They also began to insist that states had entered the Union freely and could leave (“secede”) freely if they chose.

Senator Daniel Webster responded in the Senate that Calhoun's theory of nullification would destroy the Union, saying "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable“. Webster and Clay worked out the Compromise of 1850.

Slavery and States’ Rights

Slavery and States’ RightsLincoln warned, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The nation could not continue half-free, half-slave. The issue must be resolved.

Abraham Lincoln, who had joined the new Republican Party, and Stephen Douglas, a Northern Democrat, conducted numerous debates when running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois in 1858. Lincoln opposed the spread of slavery into new states; Douglas stood for “popular sovereignty.”

Slavery and States’ Rights

The Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court overturned efforts to limit the spread of slavery and outraged Northerners, as did enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, which required slaves who escaped to free states to be forcibly returned to their owners in the South.

Dred Scott, shown with Harriet Scott, his wife, brought suit against Scott's former owner who had taken him from Missouri into the Wisconsin Territory where slavery was prohibited. Taney's Supreme Court held that slaves such as Dred Scott were not citizens; despite the fact that such a ruling meant he had no status to sue, Taney then proceeded to argue that the Missouri Compromise had unconstitutionally restricted the property rights of slave owners.

Slavery and States’ Rights

• The effects of the Fugitive Slave law: A handbill dated April 24, 1851, warning the "Colored People" of Boston to beware of infringement of their freedoms by the fugitive slave law.