Causes of the Civil War

Causes of the Civil War • Long Term Causes • Separation / Division between North and South • Social / Cultural • Economic • Political • Slavery….perhaps the most important • Immediate Causes • Events and Issues of the 1850s…mostly centered on Slavery / Slave issue

Origins and Expansion of Slavery; Slavery to the 1850s: As cause of the Civil War, 1861

1619 in Virginia • Slavery began in the US in 1619 – in Jamestown, Virginia – 19 slaves bought by Tobacco Planters • Slow at first; high costs, Spanish and Portuguese merchants dominated the trade /no British traders, then monopoly given to one British company… • After monopoly ended, slavery become a significant and indispensable part of the Southern plantation economy (less expensive and more availability) …tobacco, rice, indigo

Indentured Servants to Slaves • May have been intended to treat them as Indentured Servants at first but this soon changed (no compulsion, costs of replacing, force of race) • Slaves replaced Indentured Servants who became a troublesome element once released (issues with Freedom Dues) and because not enough Indentured Servants were willing to come to the colonies • Increased to 500,000 by 1776, with the majority in South

Slave Codes • To control / regulate slavery the southern colonies introduced Slave Codes (added to later, and more and more enforce) • What had been a fairly loose, informal system gradually evolved into an increasingly harsh, rigid, regulated, system that controlled nearly every aspect of their lives. • They were forbidden from • Leaving their masters premises w/o permission • Being out of doors after dark • Congregating with other slaves except at church • Carrying firearms • Owning property • Striking a white person even in self defense • Testifying in court against a white person

Slave Codes contd.. • Also: • Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized • If an owner killed a slave while punishing him, the act was not considered a crime. • Slaves faced the death penalty for killing or even resisting a white person and for inciting to revolt. • Prohibited white people from teaching slaves to read or write

Abolished in the Northern States • Religious groups in the North (Quakers) opposed Slavery • Not needing slavery – no plantations – it was easier for the North to oppose the system • Implicitly condemned by Jefferson in a deleted clause of the Declaration of Independence - blaming King George for imposing it on them and accusing him of refusing to allow it to end - and, of course, “All Men Are Created Equal”…. • All Northern States had abolished Slavery by the 1780s

Northwest Ordinance, 1787 • The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, issued by the Articles of Confederation gov. banned slavery from the newly organized and settled territories……

Constitution of 1788 • At Philadelphia, the Northern states stopped pursuing the issue of Slavery when it started to become divisive • Implicitly recognizes Slavery through its three references to it • Three Fifths Compromise • Provision for returning fugitive slaves, and • Delaying the ban on the importation of slaves for 20 yrs – 1808 – no mention of ending slavery

10th Amendment • Decision about slavery is a State’s Right: “powers not granted to the national gov. nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states and to the people.” • Southern States legalized the institution….states rights

Decline in Importance • By the late 1780s, slavery in the South was not as important as it had been. • Tobacco plantations declined – cotton plantations emerged • The demand for Cotton was high but production was too slow to make it very profitable

Whitney’s Cotton ‘Gin • This changed after Whitney’s invention of the Cotton Gin (1790): separated the black sticky seed from the cotton fiber at speed • Expansion of labor intensive Cotton production – it became the South’s most important Plantation / Cash crop (replaced tobacco, sugar, rice) - created a new demand for Slaves (reinvigorated Southern slavery) • Importation of Slavery increased (not yet banned – until 1808): Slave families / women were rewarded for having more kids

Eli Whitney Cotton ‘Gin and Interchangeable Parts

Slave Population and Value • The Slave population increased from • 500,000 1776 • 700,000 1790 • 1.5 m 1820 • 3.2 m 1850 • 4m 1860 • Because demand was high, the cost / value of Slaves increased • $400 in 1790 to • $1800 in 1860 • By 1860 Slaves / Slave property was valued at $2 billion

Peculiar Institution • Called the “Peculiar Institution” because while it was expanding rapidly in the US (mostly from natural reproduction / some smuggling after 1808) it was being abolished in the rest of the world…..(except for Brazil and Cuba)….the British abolished slavery from their empire in 1833 (William Wilberforce)

“Cotton is King” • Cotton became vital to the National Economy, as well as to the Southern economy (cotton planters could make huge profits, though the plantation system was often financially “unstable and wasteful”) • In 1800, the US exported $5m worth of cotton, or 7% of the value of the nations total exports. • By 1810 this had increased to $15m • By 1840 to $63m, and • By 1860 to $191m, or 57% of the value of all US exports

Importance Nationally and Internationally • Southern Cotton supplied the Northern textile industry • Much of the South’s Cotton was shipped overseas from Northern ports by Northern Shippers. • Southerner Cotton Planters borrowed from Northern banks. • The South supplied Britain with 75% of her supply of cotton (textile industry employed one fifth of British work force) (felt Britain would come to their aid in a Civil War) • The South produced half of the entire World’s Cotton • Huge dependence: The South felt that Cotton Was indeed “King”

Conditions of Slavery • Most slaves lived in rigid, harsh, prison-like conditions, in crude dwellings, with just enough food to survive on, and were overworked, usually in the cotton fields (“field slaves”); from dawn ‘till dusk, six days a week… • But they were not asked to do dangerous work - such as clearing malaria infested swamps, tunnel blasting or repairing roofs.. • Done by hired $1 a day laborers, rather than by their $1,800 investment • Conditions / work was harsher in the Deep South – the “black belt” during colonial period – rice, indigo..

Conditions of Slavery contd.. • Domestic slaves had it slightly easier, though female slaves were subjected to the unwanted sexual advances of their owners (preferred to be Field Slaves – less scrutiny, more company of fellow slaves) • On some of the smaller farms, where the landowners might own just a handful of slaves, slaves were generally treated a lot better. • The owner might work alongside the slaves, and get to know them better • Here the Codes were not always enforced, esp. the reading and writing restriction.

Slave Auctions • Slave Auctions are considered to be the most dehumanizing aspect of Slavery, both physically and psychologically (Uncle Tom’s Cabin shows the harshness of enforced separation of families) • Slaves were examined like livestock, given new names, and families were separated. • Traders tried to deceive buyers by blacking gray hair, oiling withered skin….. • Families were split up (“enforced separation”) and the children sold off – “sold down the river”

Freed Slaves • Some slaves were voluntarily freed by their owners, esp. mulattoes – manumission (change of heart, through their will’s, purchased their freedom), some ran away and were not captured. • Pop. of 250,000 freed slaves in the South and 250,000 in the North by 1860 • In South and even in the North they faced discrimination, segregation, prejudice / “a third race” – though some prospered (William Johnson): found only the most menial and low paying jobs, couldn’t vote, and were sometimes “hijacked” back into slavery

Faced prejudice in North, esp. from Irish immigrants – much of the agitation in the Nth against the spread of slavery into the new territories in the 1840s and 1850s grew out of race prejudice, not humanitarianism. • Strong anti-black feeling was evident in the North from the attacks on Abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglass who was frequently beaten by racist mobs • White southerners (often raised by black nurses) liked the black as an individual but despised the race, while northerners professed to like the race but disliked the individual blacks

Slave Response • Combination of Resignation/Adaptation, Resistance, Rebellion • Most slaves Adapted / Accepted their situation with resignation; relied on their heritage and culture – music, religion, family bonds - for comfort, enjoyment – were resilient • Some Resisted; varied from pretending not to understand directions (Sambo stereotype; “dim-witted”) wounding themselves - to get out of doing difficult jobs; working at a slow pace; sabotaging machinery to get a break from work; ran away – punished for these (lash; “breakers”)

Slave Rebellions – the most extreme form of resistance • 1. Stono Rebellion (1739) South Carolina; 20 slaves escaped, armed themselves, joined by 100 others, tried to escape into Florida, killed 22, captured, beheaded • 2. Gabriel Prosser led 1,000 slaves in Richmond VA, in 1800; betrayed and suppressed. Prosser and 35 others executed. • 3. Denmark Vesey, in 1822, a free mulatto, organized a revolt in Charleston S. Carolina: betrayed. Vesey and 30-35 others were hung..

Slave Rebellions – the most extreme form of resistance • 4. 1831, Nat Turner, a slave preacher, org. a major uprising along N.C. / VA border - the largest in US History. • Dreamed he was destined to lead slaves to freedom; messianic • Escaped from plantation at night, armed themselves with guns and axes, and went from house to house in Southampton County VA, killed 60 • Eventually overpowered by state and fed. troops, who killed hundreds of the slaves, beheading some, put the severed heads on poles as an example to other slaves who might be considering rebellion.

Who Owned Slaves? • The majority of slave-owners were small farmers (owned 10 or less slaves; worked with them in the fields, struggled financially, lived modestly) • The majority of slaves were owned by big landowners (1,733 families) on Plantations of more than 100 slaves • Slave-owners made up 25% (one fourth) of the population • The majority of white southerners – 75% - did not own slaves – they were struggling non slave-owning subsistence farmers (cotton and hogs), including impoverished hillbillies / mountain whites / crackers / clay eaters – even slaves made fun of them

Who Owned Slaves? • Slaves were concentrated in the Deep South / Black Belt: from S. Carolina and Georgia into Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana • Only 0.5% of Southerners owned more than 100 slaves each. • A minority of Southerners owned Slaves: A tiny minority owned more than 100 slaves • Yet almost the entire South supported the institution of Slavery (except for the “mountain whites”).. ….(later)

Growth of Abolitionism in the North • Abolitionist movement began in the 1820s and 1830s, as part of the Reform Movements; Perfectibility of Society.. • Benjamin Lundy advocated: Voluntary, Gradual, Compensated Emancipation, followed by re-Colonization to Africa - reflects Nth racism / blacks were loathed in the North (Liberia, 1822, capital Monrovia: 15,000 transported there, but after 1860 virtually all Sth slaves were native born African Americans, with no desire to be sent to Africa) • But his American Colonization Society made little headway: shortage of money, Slaves opposed re-Colonization, little voluntary Emancipation

William Lloyd Garrison • More radical group - William Lloyd Garrison advocated Mandatory, Immediate, Non-Compensated Emancipation, followed by full equality as US citizens - in his Boston newspaper the Liberator • Formed the American Anti Slavery Society in 1833, uniting many smaller groups • By 1835 there were more than 400 societies: by 1838 there were 1350, with more than 250,000. • His tone, language, were uncompromising and abrasive

Lundy and Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison • “I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. • …No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. 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 apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.” (The Liberator)

Garrison’s Supporters • Garrison was supported by Preachers of the Second Great Awakening, esp. Charles Grandison Finney: and the Lane Rebels, led by Theodore Dwight Weld and the Tappan brothers…and Wendell Phillips (“abolitionists golden trumpet” – would not eat sugar cane or wear cotton clothing. • Expelled from the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati presided over by Lyman Beecher (father of Catherine Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe) for organizing an 18 day debate on slavery (he was an abolitionist too). • Weld wrote a pamphlet "American Slavery As It Is" in 1839, one of the most influential pieces of Abolitionist literature at the time – showed how harsh the system was: influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Also supported by Wendell Phillips – abolitionists “golden trumpet” – refused to eat sugar cane or wear cotton clothing: advocated boycott on goods produced from material from slave South

William Lloyd Garrison • Garrison’s harsh rhetoric and self-righteousness caused his movement to splinter in 1840 • At an 1845 meeting he condemned the US Constitution as "an agreement with hell and a covenant with death," because it recognized the legality of slavery • He tore it up and stamped on it – some regarded this as disrespectful of this sacred document • He also advocated that women be permitted to lead the movement on equal terms – this too caused tension

“Yet, his three decades of agitation had shifted public opinion significantly. By forcing Americans to face the gap between slavery and the ideals of liberty and equality, he helped lay the foundation for emancipation”

Black Abolitionists • David Walker, wrote a pamphlet in 1829, Walkers Appeal... to the Colored Citizens • Said that the US is the country of blacks more than it is of whites – they had enriched it with their blood and tears • Urged slaves to rebel and kill their masters • Sojourner Truth, a former slave, gave powerful abolitionist speeches about the evils of slavery at revivalist meetings (and women’s rights). • Used the proceeds from the sale of her biography The Narrative Life of Sojourner Truth to assist escaped slaves

Other Abolitionists: Black Leaders • Frederick Douglass– considered the greatest black leader • Former slave, escaped to MA, then left for England and participated in the Abolitionist movement there • Returned to the US, purchased his freedom • Founded an antislavery newspaper - North Star - in NY. • Autobiography: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, presented a damning picture of slavery.

Spoke at Abolitionist meetings: powerful voice, charismatic personality; demanded equality after Emancipation, supported political solution – Free Soil Party, Rep Party….then C War • Martin Delaney: one of the few black leader who supported re-colonization in Africa

The Underground Railroad • Encouraged and assisted Slaves to run away • Loose informal chain of safe houses (stations) along escape routes where Abolitionists assisted them, providing food, clothing, shelter, until they reached the North or Canada • About 1,000 slaves a year were smuggled to freedom in this manner, from the 1830s • Harriet Tubman, the most famous “conductor” – a runaway herself, risked re-capture in 19 return forays to rescue 300 others (inc. her parents): The Moses of her People: a bounty of $40,000 on her head

Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852. • Harriet Beecher Stowe’s work of fiction was perhaps the most powerful piece of Abolitionist literature / propaganda in these yrs • Motivated to write it by the harsh Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Inspired by writings of Weld / Revivalism of Second GA • She hoped to awaken the North to the evils of slavery by exposing its brutality, inhumanity, immorality, through a captivating story – focuses on the break up of families • She opened the eyes of many who had no idea how cruel Slavery really was; huge impact: accelerated growth of Abolitionism

Sold more than 300,000 copies within a year; re-printed many times (millions eventually)– one of the best sellers in US history….dramatized by countless theatre companies throughout the nation

Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852 • Lincoln said to her in 1862, "so you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war“ – helped start the War and helped the North to win it • Many Union soldiers said that her book inspired them to enlist • It also had a huge impact abroad – read in Britain, and translated and read in other parts of Europe • British Govt. realized the popularity of the book and its impact on the British public – knew it would not get support if it advocated going to war on behalf of the South to protect the supply of Cotton

Hinton Helper • TheImpending Crisis of the South (1857), also brought home to the Northern public the evils of slavery – he hated slavery (and blacks), felt non-slaveowning whites were hurt most by slavery • Popular book, thousands of copies were printed; banned in South • Abolitionists used the book, by a Southern white middle class writer, in support of their cause

Forms and Expansion of Abolitionism • Speeches, debates, sermons… Lundy, Garrison, Weld, Phillips, using moral, religious Persuasion • Writing: pamphlets (Weld), books (Truth, Douglass, Helper, Walker), novels (Beecher-Stowe), newspapers (Garrison, Douglass) • Political action / pressure; bringing anti-slavery petitions / resolutions before Congress and forming third parties; Liberty Party and Free Soil Party, then Republican Party: attempts to prevent expansion – Tallmadge Amendment, Wilmot

Boycotting goods made by slave labor (Phillips) • Call for slave rebellion – extremists like David Walker’s (1829) “Appeal to the Colored People” – “rise up and throw off the yoke of slavery” - you are three million strong – had you not rather be killed than be a slave to a tyrant……also John Brown / Bleeding Kansas / Harpur’s Ferry • Underground Railroad - Harriet Tubman

Opposition to Abolitionism • Though growing steadily, Abolitionism also had its opponents in the North…..recent immigrants, racism, supporters of Constitutional rights of South, industrialists in North depending on Cotton…. • Abolitionists were sometimes physically attacked and intimidated • In Connecticut the abolitionist Prudence Crandall was forced to close her school after threats and intimidation when she started to admit African American children • In Philadelphia, the headquarters of the Abolitionist movement was burned to the ground in 1834

In Boston a mob seized Garrison, dragged him through the streets with a rope around his neck and threatened to hang him • In NY the house of Lewis Tappan was broken into and ransacked • In Alton, Illinois, Rev. Elijah Lovejoy, editor of an Abolitionist newspaper, had his presses destroyed, his office set fire on three occasions, on fourth occasion he tried to resist and was shot dead (1837) • Know as the “martyr abolitionist” • Abolitionism grew slowly from the 1820-1840s, then became a popular movement in the 50s, due to the events of that decade

Abolitionism and the Civil War • Growth of Abolitionist Movement, esp. in the 1850s, was a critical factor in causing the Civil War • Aroused the North to the evils of Slavery: contributed to determination of North to stop it expanding and to try to abolish it in the South / Emancipate Southern Slaves • It’s condemnations contributed to alienating the South, to the development of a siege mentality, compelling the South to secede and then fight to preserve the system • It caused both the North and South to become outraged, pushing them towards Civil War….

Slavery and the Civil War “Slavery was not the only source of discord. The two sections were very different and they wanted different things from their national government…Although there were serious differences between the sections, all of them except slavery could have been settled through the democratic process. ….Slavery poisoned the whole situation. It was the issue that could not be compromised, the issue that made men so angry they did not want to compromise…It was not the only cause of the Civil War, but it was unquestionably the one cause without which the war would not have taken place. The antagonism between the sections came finally, and tragically, to express itself through the slavery issue.” (Bruce Catton, The Civil War)

Causes of the Civil War