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The Eve of Civil War

The Eve of Civil War. North vs. South. The North 1860 Population = 22 million Industrial society Fluid, dynamic, growing. The South 1860 Population = 9 million (3.5 to 4 million slaves) Agricultural society Static, conservative society. Antebellum North. Industrialization continued

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The Eve of Civil War

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  1. The Eve of Civil War

  2. North vs. South • The North • 1860 Population = 22 million • Industrial society • Fluid, dynamic, growing • The South • 1860 Population = 9 million (3.5 to 4 million slaves) • Agricultural society • Static, conservative society

  3. Antebellum North • Industrialization continued • More inventions • John Deere: steel edged plow • Cyrus McCormick: reaper • Working conditions • Late 1830s: good (attraction of west) • After 1837: worse (surplus of labor => immigration) • Transportation / communication • Telegraph, Pony Express (1860) • Savannah (1819) – first oceanic steamship • Clipper ships, through 1850s • Importance: united Western farms with NE industry to create industrial North

  4. Antebellum North • Immigration • Rapid increase in immigration from Ireland, Germany • Ireland: UK oppression, potato famine • Germany: autocratic rulers, failed revolutions of 1830 & 1848 • US seen as escape, place of hope • Irish to cities in NE • Germans to farms, cities of Midwest

  5. Antebellum North • Perception of immigration • Threat to “American way of life” • Economics • Religion (“Popery”) • Language • Reaction to immigration • Discrimination (“NINA”) • American (“Know Nothing”) Party • Plunge in work conditions Ad, New York Times (1854)

  6. Antebellum North • Cheap labor, strikes, led to reform • Child labor • Shorter work day • Work conditions • “Organized labor” emerges • 1834: Nat’l Trades Union – America’s first union

  7. Social Structure Planters – owned at least 20 slaves 50,000 in 1860 2,500 owned 100-500 slaves 3 owned 500+ slaves Small Slave Owners Owned 2-3 slaves Not accepted into planter society Small farmers No slaves (looked up to planters) Laborers & tenants Skilled crafters Mobile Antebellum South Planter’s home (1861)

  8. Antebellum South • Social structure, cont. • Poor whites • Subsistence farmers • Generally anti-slavery • “Poor white trash”; “Piney white folks”; “crackers” • Free blacks • Born or set free • Often educated • Lived in cities, for safety • Slaves • House slaves • Field workers

  9. Antebellum South • South nickname = “King Cotton” • 1791: 4000 bales (500 lbs. each) of cotton produced • 1793: invention of cotton gin • 1860: 4 million bales produced • 1860, cotton represented 2/3 of all US exports

  10. Anti-Slavery justifications Religion: Christian ethic Morality: slavery utterly evil Humanity: disruption of families, cruel treatment of other humans Freedom: denied political, civil rights Enlightened thinking: equality denied Pro Slavery justifications Slaves were inferior, uncivilized, child like “classical” civilizations used slaves Better than “wage slave” Northern system “Cotton Kingdom”, US depended on slavery Bible upheld slavery Slavery was profitable Fear of change in relationship between whites, blacks No alternative to slavery, in South Slavery seen as a positive good (unified South) Road to Civil War: Slavery Debate

  11. Road to Civil War: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) • Dred Scott was a slave owned by an army doctor • Owner moved to free state (Illinois) • Scott: am I free because I’m in a free state? • Supreme Court: NO! • Any person descended from a black African was not a citizen • MO Compromise was unconstitutional, b/c Congress did not have power to free all Black Africans or give them citizenship (5th Am) • Effectively, SC said slaves were property, it could not be excluded from North or the territories • North horrified! Dred Scott Chief Justice Roger Taney

  12. Road to Civil War • Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858 • Lincoln: coming of age of Republican cause • Douglas: popular sovereignty survived Dred Scott • Douglas won Senate seat, but Lincoln gained national attention • John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry, 1859 • Southern militias started training after raid • Secession talk increased w/ approaching election

  13. Election of 1860 • Four candidates • Northern Ds: Douglas (status quo, pop. Sovereignty) • Southern Ds: Breckenridge (protect slavery, S. rights) • Republican: Lincoln (against extension of slavery) (not on 10 ballots, in South) • Constitutional Union: Bell (status quo) • People went to polls knowing that six states would secede if Lincoln elected Results Lincoln (R): 180 ECV / 1,865,593 Breckenridge (SD): 72 ECV / 1,382,713 Douglas (ND): 12 ECV / 848,356 Bell (U): 39 ECV / 592,906

  14. Abraham Lincoln • Born in KY, 1809, log cabin • Little formal education – self taught • 6’5” tall, very strong – “wrassler” • Moved to Springfield at age 21 • New Orleans trip (1832) • Became attorney, 1 term Congressman, President

  15. Secession • South saw election of Lincoln as radicalization of Union • Secession by inauguration (4/61): SC, MI, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX • TX – ¼ of entire Federal army surrendered, joined confederacy • Feb 1861: Jefferson Davis (US Senator from SC) took oath of office as President of CSA • VA, AK, NC, TN joined CSA after Fort Sumter surrender • MO, KY divided between N, S • WV formed out of VA (anti-slavery part)

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