Causes of the Civil War: Key Issues & Events

1. SS8H6aExplain the importance of key issues and events that led to the Civil War; include slavery, states’ rights, nullification, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850 and the Georgia Platform, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott case, election of 1860, the debate over secession in Georgia, and the role of Alexander Stephens. Concept: Conflict and Change Individuals and Groups Rule of Law

2. CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR ESSENTIAL QUESTION How did the following issues and events cause the Civil War? slavery - states’ rights Nullification - Missouri Compromise Compromise of 1850 - Kansas/Nebraska Act Dred Scott case - Election of 1860 Debate over secession - Alexander Stephens

3. Western Expansion • After President Thomas Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States doubled in size. This purchase gave the United States control of the vast lands west of the Mississippi. • As Americans pushed west, the issue of slavery came to the forefront. • Would the new territories of the United States be slave or free?

4. ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin and the resulting cotton boom led the South to focus on agriculture while the North focused on industrial growth. • North • Based on Industry & Manufacturing • Other economic activities: • - Mining • - Banking • - Retail • - Railroad • - Steel & Iron • South • Based on farming & the slave trade • Other economic activities: - Mills (Factories that refine agricultural products)

5. People based their decisions,opinions, and views on what was good for only their part of the country. Who will control the new territory out west?

6. TARIFFS The United States Congress passed the tariff of 1828 in order to increase the price of foreign goods so that the same goods manufactured in the north would be cheaper in price. This helped northern businesses, but people in the south were having to pay more for a product that was their second choice since their first choice (foreign product) is now more expensive because of the tariff (tax) added to the cost.

8. The North favored tariffs to persuade people to buy products made in their own country. By placing protective tariffs on imports, Northern business men prospered. Southerners felt this unconstitutional and that they should not have to pay the tariff. South Carolina even threatened to leave the union if the tariffs were not repealed. TARIFFS

9. Nullification The tariff of 1828 led to discussions in the South about nullification. Nullification is the argument that a state has the right not to follow a federal law. The state of South Carolina wanted to ignore the tariff. By 1832, Congress slightly modified the Tariff of 1828 to appease the southern states.

10. STATES’ RIGHTS This phrase refers to individual states being sovereign (or having the right to govern itself). According to the 10th amendment of the constitution… “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Basically, states wanted to follow their own laws, and they did not want the federal government (United States) to overrule state laws.

11. STATES’ RIGHTS The main issue over states’ rights involved the institution of slavery. Southern states feared that Congress would pass laws eventually outlawing the practice of slavery, which would hurt the southern agricultural economic way of life involving the growing of cotton on large plantations.

12. SLAVERY When the Georgia Trustees first envisioned their colonial experiment in the early 1730s, they sought to avoid the slave-based plantation economy that had developed in other colonies in the American South. The allure of profits from slavery, however, proved to be too powerful for white Georgia settlers to resist. By the era of the American Revolution (1775-83), African slaves constituted nearly half of Georgia's colonial population. Although the Revolution fostered the growth of an antislavery movement in the northern states, white Georgia landowners fiercely maintained their commitment to slavery even as the war disrupted the plantation economy. In subsequent decades slavery would play an ever-increasing role in Georgia's shifting plantation economy. - New Georgia Encyclopedia

13. Kentlaw.edu

14. SLAVERY By the 1790s entrepreneurs were perfecting new mechanized cotton gins, the most famous of which was invented by Eli Whitney on a Savannah River plantation owned by Catharine Greene in 1793. This technological advance presented Georgia planters with a staple crop that could be grown over much of the state.

17. SLAVERY Although slavery played a dominant economic and political role in Georgia, most white Georgians did not own slaves. In 1860 less than one-third of Georgia's adult white male population of 132,317 were slaveholders. Slaveholders controlled not only the best land and the vast majority of personal property in the state but also the state political system. In 1850 and 1860 more than two-thirds of all state legislators were slaveholders. More striking, almost a third of the state legislators were planters. Hence, even without the cooperation of non-slaveholding white male voters, Georgia slaveholders could dictate the state's political path. - New Georgia Encyclopedia

20. MISSOURI COMPROMISE In 1819, the United States was divided equally with 11 free states and 11 slave states. People living in the Missouri Territory applied for statehood as a slave state, but Congress did not approve because there would be an imbalance of power. Think back to the Senate where 2 senators represent each states. If Missouri was allowed to be a slave state then there would be 24 US senators coming from slave states and 22 from non-slave states. Slave states would have an advantage when trying to pass or keep from passing certain laws.

22. MISSOURI COMPROMISE To keep a balance in the US Congress, a compromise was made to allow Maine to be admitted to the Union as a free state while Missouri was added to the United States as a slave state. Also part of the compromise was that slavery would be outlawed north of the 36th degree line of latitude.

24. COMPROMISE OF 1850 • In 1850, California applied for admission as a free state. Once again, the balance of power in the Senate was threatened. The South did not want to give the North a majority in the Senate. • The Compromise of 1850 had four parts: 1) California entered as a free state. 2) The rest of the Mexican cession was divided into New Mexico and Utah. In each state, voters would decide the issue of slavery. 3) Slave trade was ended in Washington D.C. 4) A strict new fugitive-slave law was passed.

26. Henry Clay Arguing in the Us Senate for the Compromise of 1850 to Avert Civil War

27. In the South, The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was seen as a victory. It required that all citizens were obligated to return runaway slaves. Northerners who helped slaves escape would be jailed and fined. The law enraged Northerners because it made them feel a part of the slave system. Persons involved with the Underground Railroad worked to subvert the law. Some actively opposed slavery and they were called abolitionists, working to abolish or end slavery. FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT

28. GEORGIA PLATFORM Georgians met at the state capital in Milledgeville to discuss the Compromise of 1850. Representative Alexander Stephens supported the Compromise of 1850 because he did not want Georgia to secede from the Union. He felt Georgia and the southern states had too much too lose if they seceded and lost a Civil War. Georgia helped prevent war and secession.

29. As part of the Compromise of 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This law said that slaves could not become free once they entered into free states. Instead, slaves were to be returned to the slave states and anyone helping a slave to freedom faced fines and imprisonment. This angered northerners who disagreed with slavery. They were now a part of the slavery issue like it or not. The other part of the 1850 Compromise was that slave trading became illegal in Washington D.C. COMPROMISE OF 1850

31. KANSAS – NEBRASKA ACT In 1854, Stephen Douglas introduced a bill to help solve the problem of slavery in the new Nebraska territory. He proposed that Nebraska be divided into two territories — Kansas and Nebraska. The settlers of the new territories would decide whether they would be slave or free. Popular Sovereignty

33. A broadside from 1854 advertises a mass meeting of anti-slavery settlers to discuss the impact of Kansas-Nebraska Act.

34. Notice the changes in boundries and views as sectionalism grows and the agruments over free or slave states increases. These compromises lead to a shift in the power.

35. DRED SCOT COURT CASE Dred Scott was a slave from the slave state of Missouri who traveled with his master Dr. John Emerson to the free state of Illinois. Dred Scott eventually tried to sue for his freedom since he believed that he could not be a slave in a free state. The Supreme Court did not rule in his favor. Instead, the Supreme Court decided that Dred Scott could not sue in court because slaves were not citizens, therefore, he had no rights. The Court also allowed slaves to be taken to free states b/c they were property of their masters.

36. The ruling was a victory for southern slave owners. Many Northerners were outraged as abolitionist sentiments grew stronger.

37. ELECTION OF 1860 For decades the arguments about slavery have been growing louder between people who live in the Northern states and people who live in the Southern states. Northerners believe slavery should be abolished for moral reasons. Southerners feel the end of slavery will destroy their region’s rural economy. Many in the South think the election of Northerner Abraham Lincoln to be president of the United States will be a serious blow to their way of life.

42. In the mid-1850s, people who opposed slavery were looking for a new voice and formed the Republican Party. Their main goal was to keep slavery out of the western territories, not to end slavery in the South. • In the presidential election of 1860, the Republicans ran Abraham Lincoln from Illinois. Lincoln was known to oppose slavery on the basis of its being morally wrong. • However, Lincoln was not willing to end slavery at the risk of tearing the Union apart. The Democratic Party had spilt, with Northern Democrats choosing Stephen Douglas and Southern Democrats choosing Vice-President John Breckinridge. A pro-Union party chose John Bell of Tennessee. • Because of the four candidates, Lincoln won the election, but received no votes in the South and was not even on the ballot.

44. DEBATE OVER SECESSION Lincoln’s victory in the 1860 presidential election caused southern states to hold conventions on whether or not they should secede from the Union in order to protect the legalization of slavery in their states. South Carolina became the 1st state to secede from the Union, while Georgia became the 5th state to secede.

45. WHAT MESSAGE IS THIS PRIMARY SOURCE POLITICAL CARTOON TYRING TO CONVEY?

47. JAN.-FEB. 1861-ROLE OF ALEXANDER STEPHENS Alexander Stephens was a U.S. Representative from Georgia who was PRO- slavery, but he was against Secession. When Georgia held a convention to decide on secession Alexander Stephens argued against it by saying the South should remain loyal to the Union. He believed that if the South seceded then a Civil War would break out and if the South lost then they would lose their states’ rights, especially the right to keep slavery legal.

48. JAN.-FEB. 1861-ROLE OF ALEXANDER STEPHENS Despite Alexander Stephens and his words of caution, Georgia decided to secede anyway. Those states in the south that seceded created the Confederate States of America, a separate country. Alexander Stephens was persuaded to become the vice-president of the C.S.A., most likely to appeal to southerners that were just like him – wanted to keep slavery, but really didn’t want to leave the union. This would help keep the southern states united.

50. APRIL 1861 After Lincoln took the oath of office in 1861, he announced that no state can lawfully leave the Union. He declared, however, there would be no war unless the South started it. • The South started to take possession of all Federal buildings — forts and post offices. The South took control of the three forts in Florida and was ready to take control of Fort Sumter in South Carolina. • In April 1861, the Confederates asked for the fort’s surrender. Major Robert Anderson of the Union refused to surrender. The Confederate troops proceeded to shell Fort Sumter. Anderson ran out of ammunition and was forced to surrender. The war had begun.