The Causes of the U.S. Civil War

1. The Causes of the U.S. Civil War

2. Preview of Content • NW Ordinance • Missouri Compromise • Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion • Nullification Crisis • Mexican American War • Wilmot Proviso • Manifest Destiny • Underground Railroad • Fugitive Slave Act

3. Preview of Content • Compromise of 1850 • Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Kansas-Nebraska Act • Bleeding Kansas/John Brown • Dred Scott • 1860 Presidential Election • Secession of Southern states • Battle of Fort Sumter

4. Just Because….

5. Review of Compromises • Missouri Compromise: • Compromise of 1850: • Kansas-Nebraska Act: • Fugitive Slave Act: • ***The goal was to keep the number of slave and non-slave states equal in the union. Each new territory that applied for statehood threatened this balance of power***

6. John Brown

7. Wilmot Proviso • Proposed to the House by David Wilmot in 1846. • “Slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist” in the lands won during the Mexican-America war. • Wilmot himself was quite racist, but wanted California to be a place where free people could work without the competition of slave labor. • The House passed the Wilmot Proviso several times, but division in the Senate prevented it from ever becoming law.

8. Who is this man?Why is he significant?

9. Nat Turner • Lead a slave rebellion that was one of the bloodiest and most effective in American history. • Began August 21, 1831 in Southampton Virginia. • Over the course of 2 days, insurrections moved from plantation to plantation. • 60 whites were killed and over 200 slaves would be executed for their role in the rebellion. • Nat Turner would escape capture until October, but would eventually be executed as well for his role. • Instead of making conditions for slaves better, many states tightened their laws regarding slaves.

11. Who is this man?Why is he significant?

12. Dred Scott Decision • Was a slave in Missouri, but moved to Illinois (free state) and to a free area in Louisiana. • Upon returning to Missouri in 1856, Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that living in a free territory had made him a free man. • What do you think-was Dred Scott a slave or free man????

13. Dred Scott Decision • This case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court. • Scott’s master claimed that anyone of “negro” decent could not be considered a citizen of the United States of America under Article III of the Constitution. • The Supreme Court ruled against Scott 7-2, using citizenship as their reason and stated that the Missouri Compromise was in fact, unconstitutional.

14. States’ Rights • Defined as: political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government, according to the U.S. Constitution. • States’ Rights as a cause of the war? • The issue, of course, is over slavery and as new territories became states, would they become a slave or free state? • Southern states believed that states had the right to choose slavery, Northern states felt that slavery should be abolished.

15. Sectionalism • Defined as: loyalty to one’s own region or section of the country, instead of the country as a whole. • North: industrial (lots of factories and railroads), urban • South: plantation agriculture based on slave labor.

17. Nullification • Defined as: the refusal of a U.S. state to recognize or enforce a federal law within it’s boundaries. • Nullification Crisis of 1832-33 over the Textile Tariff (or what would be called the Tariff of Abominations). • South Carolina, lead by John C. Calhoun will ignore the tariff. • President Jackson was willing to send federal troops into South Carolina in order to uphold this tariff.

19. Economic Differences: North and South • North: • Soil and climate favored small farms • Industry flourished with lots of natural resources • Large cities established (New York largest) • By 1860, 25% of Northerners lived in urban areas • Work in factories, fueled by European immigrants, not slaves. • 2/3 of railroads located in the North provided excellent transportation. • Children in the North were more likely to attend school than in the South (more professional careers come from this)

20. Economic Differences: North and South • South: • Fertile soil and warm climate made the South ideal for large scale farms (or plantations). • 80% of the labor force worked on a farm • 2/3 of Southerners owned no slaves, but slavery became a peculiar institution (part of Southern culture) • Agriculture had been so profitable that Southerners saw littler reason to industrialize. • Only major city was New Orleans. • Transportation was difficult and was mostly done by water.

21. Abolitionists • Definition: • Major reasons against slavery: • Famous abolitionists • Frederick Douglass • Sojourner Truth • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Harriet Tubman

22. Uncle Tom’s Cabin…or Life Among the Lowly • Famous anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. • Written in response to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. • Most popular novel of the 19th Century, 2nd most popular book sold behind the bible. • “So this is the little lady who started this great war”.

24. Lincoln Douglas Debates • A series of 7 debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas for the 1858 senate election in Illinois. • Douglas was the incumbent Democratic senator, Lincoln was relatively unknown. • Lincoln would make his famous “House Divided” speech. Douglas would promote compromises as a way to prevent war. • “A house divided against itself cannot stand” • Lincoln will lose the election in 1858, but will win (against Douglas again!) the presidential election in 1860.

25. Lincoln’s Election • Ran for president on an anti-slavery platform • Elected in 1860 without the support of a single Southern state. • Secession Defined: The act of withdrawing from an organization, union or a political union. • Lincoln and the North fought instead of allowing the secession of the Southern states. • This wasn’t based on slavery, but Lincoln felt it was his sacred duty to protect the Union at all cost.

26. Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of the U.S.

27. Jefferson Davis/Confederacy • 1st and only President of the Confederate States of America. • From Mississippi: military and political experience • House of Representatives-left position to fight in the Mexican-American War • Secretary of War • Senate • Left the Senate on January 21st, 1861 when Mississippi seceeded from the Union. • Was elected President one month later as a compromise candidate.

29. Fort Sumter • Charleston, South Carolina • When SC seceeded from the union (Dec. 1860), Major Anderson moved his troops to a more fortified location, to Fort Sumter. • His troops only had 6 weeks of supplies remaining in March of 1861. • The South demanded the fort’s surrender on April 11th, 1861 and Anderson refused. • At 4:30 am on April 12th, the first shots of the Civil War began. The South bombed the fort for 34 hours. • On April 13th, General Anderson and the Union troops officially surrendered.

30. Fort Sumter

35. What were the Causes of the Civil War? • 1. Economic and social differences between the North and South. • 2. States vs Federal Rights • 3. Fight between Slave and non-Slave state proponents. • 4. Growth of the abolition movement • 5. Election of Abraham Lincoln